The Lady Cadets Soccer team traveled to Western Boone High School tonight for their fourth game of the season. The Cadets have found their scoring rhythm in the past two games and look tonight to continue their improved effort on the field. Tonight’s non-conference game will be the team’s last warm-up before a four game stretch of ICC games over the next two weeks. For the Lady Stars, the game against Cascade is their second game of the season. The Lady Cadets defeated Western Boone last season 3-0. With a positive attitude for the past two games, the Lady Cadets took the field at Western Boone High School knowing that they could play with most of the teams on their schedule. The Cadets and Stars had played two physical games in the past two years and the Cadets expected nothing less tonight. The Stars started with possession of the ball at the start of first half and made no real movements toward the Cadet goal. The Cadets won the ball back quickly and pushed toward the Stars goal and took a good shot on the Stars goalie opening minute. The save the Western Boone goalie made on that first shot gave a glimpse of how great she would play for the whole game. Despite repeated shots, break aways, and great corner kicks made by the Cadets, they could only manage one goal on the Western Boone goalie all night. Once the Stars were able to get a small lead, you could just feel that the Stars wanted to move deeper on the soccer field and sit back to play a strong, physical defense. That one goal that the Stars needed occurred early in the first half when the Stars played an excellent counter attack and surprised the Lady Cadets goalie with a strong shot from just outside of the goal box. This early goal was an excellent shot by the Lady Stars, it shook up the Cadets defensive unit, and energized the Lady Stars for the entire game. This 1-0 lead for the Lady Stars forced the Cadets to play even harder on the defensive ends and in the midfield because the Cadets had to move the ball even more quickly to break down the Stars defense. This new level of play and energy slowly drained the Cadets over the rest of the first half despite the Lady Cadets having two great shots bounce off of the Lady Stars goalposts. Even when the Cadets shot the ball past the Lady Stars goalie, it seemed the ball still wouldn’t go into the back of the net. The first half ended 1-0 in favor of the Stars. The second half started out well for the Lady Cadets. The opening possession yielded a good shot again on the Stars’ goal and the halftime break gave a burst of energy to the Cadets. The Cadets were able to get their only goal of the game when Creedance Chittenden pushed through a gaggle of Lady Stars defenders to shoot the ball into the back of the net. This goal energized the Lady Cadets and seemed to deflate the Stars a bit. Fans, coaches, and the Lady Cadet players could feel that they were on the right track and a second goal could be on the verge of being scored. The disheartening truth is that the second goal wouldn’t be scored by the Cadets but by the Lady Stars. Almost 3:00 minutes after the Cadets scored the game tying goal, the Lady Stars were able to get a goal through the legs of the Cadet goalie for a 2-1 lead. The game completely changed again with this second goal and the Cadets had to go back to exerting considerable energy to break down the Lady Stars defense. The Lady Stars kept up their physical play after regaining the lead and kept the Cadets from getting a good scoring attempt in the last 10:00 of the game. Unfortunately in the last 10:00 minutes of game, the Lady Cadets incurred two serious injuries that required those players to leave the field and not return. The game ended in a 2-1 loss for the Cadets and numerous bags of ice being distributed throughout the Cadets players to help recover from such a physically taxing game. The Lady Cadets loss moves their record to 2-2 (1-0 ICC) and the Lady Stars are now 1-1. The next Cadets game will be on Thursday, August 25th when they host ICC member Cardinal Ritter. The game is scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m. and will be played on the grass field outside the football stadium. Game Summary Cascade 0 - 1 1 Western Boone 1 - 1 2 Goals/Assists: G: 31:27 Creedance Chittenden (7)