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The Paper file photo
Southmont senior Nathaniel Borden scored a goal in the Mounties’ 4-1 win over county-rival Crawfordsville. |
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| Boys soccer
Saturday
At Southmont
Southmont 4, Crawfordsville 1
Crawfordsville 0 1 – 1
Southmont 3 1 – 4
Goals scored: Tyler Whittington C; Chris Rash S 3; Nathaniel Borden S
Assists: Ethan Smith S; Tyler Witherspoon S
Shots on goal: Crawfordsville 8, Southmont 9
Saves: Miguel Salazar C 1; James Miller C 4; Nick Truncone S 7
Records: Southmont 6-2 (1-1 SAC), Crawfordsville 5-4 (2-3 SAC)
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Reprinted Courtesy of:
The Paper of Montgomery County
www.thepaper24-7.com
By John Groth
Sports Editor
NEW MARKET – This Rash spread quickly.
Somehow, Chris Rash kept finding himself in the right spot all Saturday morning.
He’d come off a cross play or receive a quick, crisp pass. Seconds later, he’d break out for a goal.
By
the end of the first half, the Mounties’ sophomore had scored from
plenty of angles and found a way to help his team bounce out of their
recent slump.
Now they’re halfway from a Montgomery County title – something they haven’t had in years.
Rash scored three goals as Southmont defeated visiting county- and Sagamore Athletic Conference rival Crawfordsville 4-1.
“We
worked on our short game this week,” said senior Tyler Witherspoon, who
had one assist. “We’ve had to adjust throughout the week with the bad
weather. It helped for the small touches and one-two combos for
(Saturday).”
Southmont (6-2, 1-1 SAC) ended its two-game losing streak and kept alive its hopes for a conference and county title.
With
head coach Alan Clifton gone because of a family wedding, assistant
coach Kyle Boots filled in and the Mounties helped him earn his first
victory.
They made crisp and clean passes, worked their give-and-go’s and executed their set plays to perfection.
Southmont scored three goals in the first half – all coming by Rash and all inside the first 20 minutes.
His
first came almost nine minutes in. He took a pass from the left side,
dribbled and launched a hard shot into the bottom right goalpost.
The
ball hit the goalpost and instead of bouncing away, like the Mounties’
shots did against Greencastle and Danville, it caromed into the goal.
Just
over eight minutes later, Rash added another off an assist and
wind-aided pass from senior Ethan Smith and then netted his third with
22:44 left in the half.
“We wanted to possess the ball as much
as we can to preserve the possession,” Boots said. “The seniors knew we
had to get it done and they came ready to play.”
For the second
straight conference game, Crawfordsville (5-4, 2-3 SAC) came out flat –
and once again that uninspiring start cost the Athenians a win.
It
also didn’t help senior goalie Miguel Salazar, who allowed all three
Rash goals, was injured during the first half (split lips) after making
a save and came out at the midway point. He later came back in and
played defense.
So Athenians’ coach Jim Kochert replaced him with junior James Miller.
Salazar actually came back in late in the first half and played defense, a move Kochert had been wanting to try for some time.
Crawfordsville
senior Tyler Whittington scored with 29:51 left in the game to cut the
lead to 3-1 but the Athenians couldn’t put any of their four other
second-half shots into the net.
“That’s two games in a row
where our lack of intensity in the first half has cost us the game,”
Kochert said. “I hope the guys will realize if they do come out with
the heart and intensity like Southmont came out with and we combine
that with our second halves, that we’re going to be hard to beat.”
Crawfordsville next plays Tuesday at Benton Central, while Southmont takes on |
