Lady Trojans jump ahead, hold off Signal
The Soddy-Daisy girls’ soccer team held off a second-half rally to hand Signal Mountain its first loss of the season Tuesday night.
The visiting Lady Trojans scored three first-half goals and held on to win 3-2.
The Lady Eagles (4-1) had not practiced since Wednesday of last week and started slowly. The hosts like to build up possession but were unable to find a rhythm, allowing Soddy-Daisy (5-1) to take advantage.
Fifteen minutes into the game, Liz Mendez slipped a clever pass ahead to Asher Smith making a run, and Smith was able to finish with one touch.
“We played a bad first half,” Signal Mountain coach Richard Northcutt said. “We had a game Thursday but had Friday through Monday off with the holiday, and it showed. We didn’t play nearly as well as we could have.”
Soddy-Daisy goalkeeper Bailey Coyner preserved the lead minutes later by deflecting a rocket right at her. Amy Rasmussen then made it 2-0 on a pass from Gracie Gilreath.
Signal Mountain again nearly found the back of
the net, but Coyner made a diving save to preserve the clean sheet. Coyner also had a hand in Soddy-Daisy’s third goal, getting the ball ahead to Smith, who flicked it on to Rasmussen for her second goal.
Soddy-Daisy continued to limit the hosts into halftime
and maintained control of the pace.
“I liked that we were aggressive and attacking balls in the air,” Lady Trojans coach Moises Drumond said. “We were getting to punts and flicking them ahead, which led to our third goal. It’s always a
physical battle with them, and we knew it wouldn’t be a 3-0 game.”
The Lady Eagles came out of halftime working to build possession as they like to do to generate offense. That, mixed with a more physical approach, started to turn the tide.
It was Signal Mountain starting to create scoring opportunities and forcing the Lady Trojans to defend.
“I didn’t go crazy. The girls did it themselves,” Northcutt said of his team’s adjustments. “We try to play simple and pass. It’s like a machine where a lot can go wrong, and we weren’t doing it well in the first half. We started to get it and were able to pass it and play more relaxed. We just had the ball more, which is our best defense, too — keeping the ball.”
After a couple of close calls earlier in the game, Signal Mountain broke through with just under 25 minutes to go. Camilla Mincey got a ball near the back line and was able to deftly arch it over the keeper and in front of the crossbar to make it a 3-1 deficit.
There was a scramble in front of the Soddy-Daisy goal with the clock ticking toward five minutes of game time left, and Tasha Kohl was there to make it a onegoal game with a rebound.
“They took the physical part of the game in the second half, and they got two goals,” Drumond said. “I don’t know if the girls believed us when we said it wouldn’t be a 3-0 game. We got some great saves and played well enough to get the win.”
Coyner came up with six saves for Soddy-Daisy, which finished with a 10-7 shot advantage.
Amanda Muschel had four saves for Signal Mountain.