For tonight’s opening game of the Sectional competition, the Lady Cadets hosted the Lady Cougars of North Putnam High School. The two schools had faced each other much earlier in the season when both teams were still trying to find their rhythm, style of play, and personality. Since that game back in August, the rigor of the high school season had changed the Cascade Cadets Girls Soccer Team. The Lady Cadets have improved their offensive efficiency as the season progressed and they have been playing with a new found level of confidence and aggression in the past month. When the Cadets and Cougars played their first game, the Lady Cadets took over 40 shots at the Lady Cougars goalie but only managed to score five goals in the game. The Lady Cougars had shown over the season a problem with stopping other teams from scoring and the Cadets had hoped tonight that they could create better quality scoring opportunities. Coming into tonight’s game, the Lady Cadets’ record stood at 6-6-1 and the Lady Cougar’s season record was 3-12-1. The Lady Cadets took little time attacking the North Putnam defensive positions who were attempting to play a high offside position to disrupt the Cadets. Cascade got four good shots on the North Putnam goal within the first three minutes but none of these shots made it into the net. Anna Burns was able to get the first goal for the Cadets tonight when she placed an excellent pass to herself between two North Putnam players and recovered the ball quickly to shoot the ball past the North Putnam goalie. This first of two goals on the evening for Anna was her 11th goal of the season. The choice of dribbling through the defense was the preferred method of attack for the Lady Cadets in the first half. Many of the offensive players for Cascade saw the spaces in the North Putnam line and kept the soccer ball deep into the North Putnam defense. The next two goals for the Cadets came from Grace Trump in the span of about 6:00 minutes. Grace’s first goal came from a misplayed ball by the North Putnam goalie on Anna Burn’s excellent shot down the goal line. As the ball slid right over the North Putnam goalie’s hands, Grace Trump was making a great run toward the back post and the ball fell right in front of Grace and she headed the ball into the goal. This first goal for Grace was her 10th of the season. The second goal scored by Grace came from an excellent centering pass from Creedance Chittenden. Creedance threw the ball into Ainsley Engel who immediately passed the ball back to Creedance along the sideline. Creedance looked up the field to see that Grace Trump was perfectly positioned to make a strong run onto the North Putnam goal if the ball could just clear the defensive line. Creedance lofted the ball toward Grace’s position and the North Putnam player misplayed the lofted ball. The bouncing ball slipped between the hands of the North Putnam goalie and Grace Trump was able to poke the ball into back of the net. The lofted pass by Creedance was her second assist on the season. After 10:00 of play in the first half, the Lady Cadets were up 3-0 and they kept moving the ball confidently up the field to try and score another goal. But it would be almost twenty five minutes before the Cadets would score again and this time Ainsley Engel would get a goal in the scorebook. Ainsley has traditionally played a defensive role for the Cadets but on this evening she was allowed to play in an attacking position and she made the most of this opportunity. As North Putnam lost the ball in the midfield, Caitlyn Russell passed the ball forward to Alexa Rodriguez who tapped the ball toward Ainsley in the midfield position. Two North Putnam defenders went toward the ball but Ainsley ran through the defenders to recover the ball and move toward the goal. After Ainsley squared her shoulders on the North Putnam goalie, she paced a strong shot into the lower left corner of the goal for her first goal of the season. The Cadets took a 4-0 lead into halftime. After a well played first half, the Cascade coaches kept their halftime speeches short and allowed the team time to talk together. The offensive and defensive units for the Cadets broke into groups and talked about how they would keep the pressure on North Putnam. It would not take long for the Cadets to add more pressure on the Lady Cougars. With only 2:00 off the second half clock, Mallory Laughlin played a beautiful one touch shot into the back of the net after receiving an amazing pass from Anna Burns. The assist from Anna was her second assist in the game and the goal for Mallory was her second goal of the season. After the team celebrated Mallory’s goal, the Cadets got back on defense got ready for their next chance to play the ball forward. After recovering a loose ball from the Lady Cougars, Mallory Laughlin turned up the field to attack once again. Mallory played a brilliant lofted pass toward Creedance Chittenden who was running completely clear of the North Putnam defense. Creedance settled the lofted pass, took three dribbles toward the North Putnam goal, and pushed the ball into the lower left corner of the goal. The goal was Creedance’s twelfth goal of the season and with 37:15 remaining in the game, the Cadets held the lead at 6-0 over the Lady Cougars. With a 6-0 lead early in the second half, the Cadets started to relax and began to move the ball even better than they did in the first half. This loose and relaxed pattern of play for the Cadets would create their last three goals of the game. Ainsley Engel scored her second goal of the game when Anna Burns passed the ball to Ainsley, who was positioned wide open in the middle of the North Putnam defense. Ainsley made three quick touches on the ball to get her rhythm down and shot the ball into the top left of the North Putnam goal. Just a couple of minutes later, Mallory Laughlin was able to score her second goal of the game in a manner almost identical to Ainsley’s goal. Ainsley Engel dribbled the ball into the middle of the North Putnam defense and Mallory Laughlin kept her position just wide of Ainsley’s dribbling. Ainsley passed the ball over to Mallory who shot the ball toward the North Putnam goal. The North Putnam goalie got her hands onto the ball but she was unable to control the shot and it passed into the goal. The score was now 8-0 in favor of the Cadets and subs from the Cascade and North Putnam bench poured onto the field for the final 15:00 of the game. Ainsley Engel was having a tremendous game and was left on the field by the Cascade coaches to help lead the Cadets over the last 15:00. But when the Cadets recovered a poorly played North Putnam pass, the ball found Ainsley’s feet and she made a spectacular move to split the North Putnam defense. After Ainsley made the move, she found herself wide open at the top of the penalty box with no defensive pressure around her. She struck a clean shot toward the North Putnam goal that moved to the left and bounced just in front of the outstretched arms of the goalie and into the goal. Ainsley’s third goal of the game was probably the most spectacular goal of the game for the Cadets but more importantly it triggered the IHSAA mercy rule and the game ended immediately in a Cadets victory of 9-0 with 9:52 remaining on the game clock. Five players had scored for the Cadets in the evening, the whole team might have played their best game of the season, and North Putnam never got into rhythm during the entire game. With the win, the Lady Cadets move on to the Sectional semifinals on Thursday night against Southmont. The game is scheduled to begin at 5:00 p.m. The Lady Cadets season record now stands at 7-6-1 and the North Putnam Lady Cougars season ends with a record of 3-13-1. Cascade and Southmont played each other two weeks ago and the Cadets won the game 3-0. Game Summary Cascade 4 - 5 9 North Putnam 0 - 0 0 Goals/Assists: 1H 34:07 Anna Burns (12) 1H 30:32 Grace Trump (10) A- Anna Burns (6) 1H 29:24 Grace Trump (11) A- Creedance Chittenden (2) 1H 4:17 Ainsley Engel (1) 2H 38:18 Mallory Laughlin (2) A- Anna Burns (7) 2H 37:15 Creedance Chittenden (12) 2H 19:44 Ainsley Engel (2) 2H 15:24 Mallory Laughlin (3) A- Ainsley Engel (3) 2H 9:52 Ainsley Engel (3)