The Lady Cadets Soccer team hosted Greencastle Lady Tiger Cubs for their ninth game of the season. Coming into tonight’s game, the Lady Cadets record has improved to 4-4 with recent wins over ICC rivals Triton Central and Scecina Memorial. The Lady Tiger Cubs are 4-1-2 in the 2022 season. Last season, Greencastle and Cascade played to a 2-2 tie. Cascade and Greencatle were once part of the WIC conference and recorded a history of competing closely for WIC titles back in the mid-2010s. Once the Cadets moved to the ICC in 2019 and the IHSAA moved Greencastle up to 2A classification, this game lost a little bit of intensity because Cascade and Greencastle were in separate conferences and in separate IHSAA classes. The games in 2020 and 2021 ended in ties and were two very intense and physical games. But these games seemed nothing less than a practice for both teams because more important conference and sectional opponents awaited both teams at the end of the season. However with new IHSAA reclassifications and the upcoming move back into the WIC for the Cadets, the 2022 game between the Cascade and Greencastle girls soccer teams rekindled those rivalry emotions of the past. The IHSAA has now placed Greencastle and Cascade in the same sectional and both teams looked at today’s game as a postseason measurement for the Sectional championship. The first half of today’s game displayed the strengths of both teams as the ball moved quickly up and down the field with predictable ease. The Lady Tiger Cubs made repeated efforts to build the ball up to their best player at the top of their formation and this offensive rhythm has helped Greencastle win games this season. The Lady Cadets did an amazing job working the ball closely through the Greencastle defense using the same offensive success that had started back with the Triton Central game last week. Tight passing and better vision of the entire field has been helping the Cadets move the ball well. The Lady Cadets kept the ball in their attacking end of the field more often than the Lady Tiger Cubs and did take more shots than Greencastle in the first half. But the Cadets still couldn’t get the ball past the Greencastle goalkeeper. The Lady Tiger Cubs got two good shots against Cascade when the Lady Cadets couldn’t cleanly clear corner kicks in the first half but neither shot entered the goal. Still dealing with a limited bench, the Cadets tried their best to keep their players as fresh as possible in the surprisingly humid morning but had to run through all of their subs earlier than expected in the first half. The first half ended 0-0 with both teams feeling that the first goal by either team could break wide open. That first goal in the game would take nearly another 20:00 off the second half game clock. After a great defensive effort of keeping the attacking Greencastle players in front of them, the Cadets’ defense won the ball back and quickly pushed the ball up the field. Katie Guetig’s recovery of a loose ball allowed her to pass the ball to a wide open Taylor Trusty in the midfield. Taylor made the correct decision to move the ball quickly ahead and caught the Lady Tiger Cubs on their defensive heels. The Lady Tiger Cubs just tapped the ball out of bounds rather than settling the ball and trying to find an open player. Grace Trump grabbed the ball out of bounds and made an excellent throw-in to Creedance Chittenden who shielded the ball from the Greencastle player. As Creedance turned to make an offensive move toward the goal, the defending Greencastle player completely missed the ball and allowed for Creedance to take a clean shot almost point blank in front of goal. The Greencastle goalie had no chance to stop Creedance’s well placed shot and at 24:27 remaining in the game, the Cadets had a 1-0 lead on Creedance Chittenden’s ninth goal of the season. Grace Trump was recognized for her fifth assist on the season. Unfortunately, the energy of grabbing the lead didn’t rally the Cadets to new heights of play. With about 21:15 left to play, the Lady Tiger Cubs were awarded another corner kick after the Cadets misplayed a clearing pass. The Lady Tiger Cubs have already scored numerous goals from the corner kick position on the season and the two good chances in the first half showed that they could exploit the Lady Cadets weakness of defending corner kicks. The Lady Tiger Cubs player played an excellent kick over the back post and right onto the foot of the intended player. The Cadets did a great job stopping that first touch on the ball but the ball ricocheted right in front of goal and the nearby Greencastle forward tapped the ball into the back of the net. The 1-0 lead for the Lady Cadets lasted only 3:00 and with 21:00 remaining on the game clock, the game was tied again. The last 20:00 of the game displayed the physical exhaustion of both teams as passes became longer and scoring chances were few for both groups. The Lady Tiger Cubs did have an excellent chance to get a 1 v 1 with the Cadets goalie with about :20 remaining but the Cadets defender Emily Nava made a great play to steal the ball back and clear it up the field. The game ended in a 1-1 tie keeping the streak of tie games between Cascade and Greencastle at three in a row (2020: 2-2, 2021: 2-2, 2022: 1-1). The tie changed the Lady Cadets record to 4-4-1 and the Lady Tiger Cubs are now 4-1-3. The next Cadets game will be on Thursday, September 15th when they host the Lady Warriors from Danville High School. The game is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. Game Summary Cascade 0 - 1 1 Greencastle 0 - 1 1 Goals: 2H 28:11 Creedance Chittenden (9), Assist- Grace Trump (5)