After an exhaustive first week of the season, the Lady Cadets got back onto the soccer pitch last evening by hosting their first home game of 2024-2025. The Lady Mustangs of Edgewood High School came to Cascade last night for their first game in Clayton in seven years. High temperatures had postponed the soccer game scheduled earlier in the week but a drop in the air temperature as well as a delayed start time have allowed tonight’s game to continue. The Lady Mustangs come into tonight’s game with a 3-0 record and the optimism to gain a full game up within the Western Indiana Conference standings. The Lady Mustangs are also participants in IHSAA 2A Sectional 27 that includes Cascade, Danville, West Vigo, Owen Valley, and Northview. With the extreme heat already pushing the start of the game back twice, adding additional lighting delays to the start of the game just seemed to fit the momentum of the evening. The game finally got started around 7:45 p.m. and the attending fans and families enjoyed an exciting well played game by both teams. The Lady Cadets had played some up and down soccer in their first couple of games and preferred to use the full field and their natural speed to build their offensive strengths. The Lady Mustangs were undefeated in their first games of the season and preferred to build their offense with passing and playing together in small groups to keep possession of the ball. As the opening minutes of the game progressed, both teams showed that they were comfortable with a physical and fast moving game and the ball moved up and down the field with each team taking a couple of easily played shots toward each other’s goal. The game switched about 20 minutes into the game when the only goal of the game was scored. This goal came off of a mistake from a Cascade throw-in that was misplayed. This Cadet error allowed the best offensive player on the Lady Mustangs team to quickly recover the ball, make one touch to time her rhythm, and then blast a nearly 20 yard shot perfectly into the upper corner of the Cascade goal. Not only did the shot surprise the Cadets, the speed at which the game turned shocked the Cadets as well. Before that goal was scored, the flow of the game had been more centrally located on the field with an occasional Cascade breakout pass and run toward the Edgewood goal. Once the Cadets were down 1-0, they knew they needed to find a way to move the Edgewood goalie around the box to get her out of position. The Cascade coaching staff knew well in advance that the Edgewood goalie was one of the best strengths of their team and that scoring on the Mustangs would take some extra effort. The Cadets would create those scoring opportunities throughout the game but could never just get the ball past the Edgewood goalie. For the whole night, the Cadets would limit the Mustangs to only one shot on goal while creating seven shots on goal for themselves. With Edgewood scheduled to participate in Sectional 27 hosted at Cascade, the opportunity for the Cadets and Mustangs to play again is good and a second Cadet/Mustang game should be another exciting game. The 1-0 loss over Edgewood drops the Cadets record up to 2-2-1. The next game for the Cadets will be September 3rd when the Indian Creek Lady Braves travel to Cascade as part of a boys/girls doubleheader. The Lady Mustangs move to 4-0 on the season and get ready for their game against North Putnam on Saturday, August 31st. Game Summary Cascade 0 Edgewood HS 1