For their second game of the soccer season, the Lady Cadets hosted the Southmont Lady Mountie. This was the second Monon Conference game for the Lady Cadets and the first conference game for the Lady Mounties. A couple of years ago, the Cascade and Southmont girls soccer game would have been circled on each team’s schedule as an anticipated really competitive game. The two schools were in the same 1A sectional (Sectional 41) from 2017-2023 and either Southmont or Cascade won the championship six times over that seven year span. With both schools now in the Monon Conference, the rivalry has an opportunity to be renewed in a different perspective. Last season, Lady Cadets were defeated 2-1 at Southmont in another high energy, competitive game. An early season comparison between the two teams foreshadowed a dominating performance by Southmont. The Lady Mounties came in with three games of experience under their belt and good confidence in their style of play from a 1-0 loss to #2 Faith Christian. In contrast, the Lady Cadets were still enjoying positive thoughts from the victory in their first game on Wednesday but the team still needed to build some conditioning and technical skills before they could move to that next level of play. The Lady Cadets held their own with the Lady Mounties for much of the first half by playing to the Cadet’s team strength: delaying the pace of the game. The Cadets frequently frustrated the Mounties' efforts to build up play for the first 20 minutes of the first half with great team defense. Using a 4-3-3 formation, the Cadets hustled all over the field and found ways to poke the ball just out of reach of the Lady Mounties and slowed or delayed their attacking rhythm. Giving so much effort in the defensive end limited the chances for the Lady Cadets to pressure the Southmont goal but it also kept the Lady Cadets in the game. It wasn’t until about 16:00 remaining in the first half when the Mounties finally broke the scoreless tie when an amazing shot from just outside the penalty box flew just under the crossbar of the Cadets goal. The success of the shot on goal surprised both teams and changed the pace of the game. Southmont went into the halftime period happy with their 1-0 lead and the Cadets pondered ways to get themselves back into the game. With the 1-0 deficit, the Cadets knew that they needed to be a bit more bold with their offensive efforts and tried repeatedly in the second half to break the Southmont lead. As the Lady Cadets spread their team across the field to create more offensive chances, they also weakened their defensive positions. Both teams were now shooting at the goals in the second half and the speed of the game started to pick up. This faster pace helped Southmont get their second goal of the game early in the second half and then their third goal later in the game. The Cadets were able to get a couple of good shots on the Southmont goal but none of those shots broke into the back of the net. As the outcome of the game started to look more evident, the Lady Cadets and Lady Mounties started to sub players off the field to give players needed rest and the clock wound down to 0:00. The game ended 3-0 in favor of the Lady Mounties of Southmont. The Lady Cadets played well in the game but just needed some good bounces to overcome the experience, athleticism, and confidence of the Lady Mounties. Those good bounces never came for Cascade and just ricochettd off the goal. The 3-0 loss for Cascade drops their season record to 1-1 (1-1 Monon Conference) in the opening week of the season. The Lady Mounties early season has been excellent. They put together four good games in the opening week of the high school soccer season and came away with a 3-1 (1-0) record. The Lady Cadets quickly return to the turf next Tuesday for their third Monon Conference game in a row when they host the Lady Stars from Western Boone Jr.-Sr. High School (0-1). The game will start at 6:00 p.m. Game Summary 1H 2H Final Cascade 0 - 0 0 Southmont 1 - 2 3