The Lady Cadets Soccer team traveled to Scecina Memorial High School tonight for their eighth game of the season. Coming into tonight’s game, the Lady Cadets record has improved to 3-4 with the Cadets in over Triton Central. The Cadets are currently 2-2 in the ICC while the Lady Crusaders are 0-1 in ICC matches. Last season, the Lady Cadets defeated the Lady Crusaders 6-1. The Scecina Memorial and Cascade Girls soccer teams have had two great games in their past two meetings. In 2020, Scecina Memorial won the Indiana Crossroads Conference (ICC) with a combination of strong defensive play and an explosive offense. In 2021, the Cadets won the ICC with a strong defense and a well balanced offense. When the Cadets and Crusaders met this evening, most of the players on those championship teams had graduated. Both teams were still trying to groom replacements to fit into those ideal defensive and offensive positions that had previously won championships. The first half of play showed how well both teams have improved from the start of the season. The Lady Cadets were moving the ball with great pace and accuracy during the first half and created many good scoring opportunities that just never found the back of the net. The Cadets top scoring group of Creedance Chittenden, Anna Burns, and Grace Trump applied relentless pressure on the Crusaders goalie. With Mallory Laughlin moving into a more central attacking position, she was able to play well-timed passes that kept the defense on its heels the whole first half. The Lady Crusaders chose to play a “long ball” game for most of the first half as they would kick the ball deep into the Cadets defense and then pressure to recover the ball. This strategy can work if the defending team has trouble working the ball out of the deeper defensive positions and a couple of times for the Lady Cadets struggled to play the right ball. Despite some small anxious moments the Lady Crusaders never really pressured the Cadets goalie with a strong shot. The first half ended tied 0-0 but the Cadets did feel that their first half play was on the right path and would find a goal soon. The Cadets first goal of the game would come from the same strong play that had done so well in the first half. As the Cadets changed directions in the second half, the Lady Crusaders goalie was now staring into the setting sun. The Lady Cadets had pushed the ball once again quickly up the field and the blinding sun forced the Crusader defensive player to just kick the ball across the endline setting up a Cascade corner kick. Anna Burns moved over to take the kick from the right side. Anna has done a great job of taking the corner kicks for most of the season and the whole team was getting better at playing the ball into the net from Anna’s great set-ups. This corner kick was the second one that the Cadets had taken in the game. Anna set the ball up on a small patch of grass and struck an excellent ball that curved right into the net, surprising the Lady Crusaders goalie as well as the Lady Cadets. This amazing shot was Anna’s seventh goal of the season and gave the Lady Cadets a 1-0 lead over Scecina Memorial. The second goal of the game for the Lady Cadets would have the same surprising results as did the first goal. As the Cadets had been pushing the soccer ball up the center of the field with some success, the Lady Crusaders had to change their defensive alignment. This change in defensive alignment encouraged more 1 v. 1 matchups for the Cadets. After a great pass sent into the middle by the Cadets Laura Cameron, the ball bounced up in the air and was slopplied played by players on both teams. Finally Grace Trump recovered the ball and took a quick dribble to get ready for a shot onto the nearby goal. Once Grace took this shot, the soccer ball looked like it was going to bounce wide of the goal and go across the end line. But playing on grass can always give odd results when the ball is bouncing. The Lady Crusaders goalie moved up to play the lofted ball from Grace Trump and decided to let that ball go hoping that it would bounce out of bounds. The soccer ball took a slight bounce toward the goal, catching the side of the goal post, and went into the back of the net. This surprising goal from Grace Trump was her fifth on the season but more importantly, it gave the Lady Cadets a 2-0 lead over Scecina with about 15:00 remaining in the game. The Lady Crusaders regrouped their energy and were able to score a goal from a corner kick with about 10:00 remaining. This goal cut the Cadet lead to 2-1 but the Crusaders couldn’t get that game tying goal before Anna Burns scored her second goal of the game and pushed the Cadets lead up to 3-1. This second goal for Anna was scored with 2:45 remaining in the and effectively sealed the Cadet victory. The game ended 3-1 and was an excellent and well played game for both teams. The Lady Cadets win moves their record to 4-4 (3-2, ICC) and the Lady Crusaders are now 1-3-2 (0-2, ICC). The next Cadets game will be on Saturday, September 10th when they host the Lady Tiger Cubs from Greencastle High School. The game is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. Game Summary Cascade 0 - 3 3 Scecina Memorial 0 - 1 1 Goals: 2H 28:11 Anna Burns (7) 2H 15:26 Grace Trump (5) 2H 2:45 Anna Burns (8)