Signal Mountain’s Savanna Filar (4) with possession of the ball, pressured by Silverdale’s Hallie Chapman (9). Signal Mountain defeated the Lady seahawks, 7-2.
photo by Joy Fisk
Even when both teams are playing aggressively on the soccer field, you can see why it’s called “the beautiful game.” Sometimes the game seems more like a dance than a sport as players spin, leap, and streak down the field towards the opposing team’s goal. Thursday night’s game between the Lady Seahawks and the Lady Eagles was an intense dance between two teams going all out to win the night, but the lady Eagles choreography may have been just a bit better as they beat the Lady Seahawks seven to two.
Thursday night was the inaugural soccer game for Silverdale on their newly turfed field and keeper Rachel Baker had some impressive saves. But Signal Mountain kept up the pressure all night long, owning the midfield with strong ball handling throughout the game. Signal Mountain’s Caroline Usrey scored the first two goals of the game and then scored again in the second half for a hat trick, and teammates Avery Hemstreet and Adi Regrutto also had a great night with two goals apiece.
Silverdale striker Lola Gore scored twice for the Lady Seahawks, once in each half. Despite the loss, Gore felt the team had done well overall but was also planning to take the lessons from the game to heart. “It’s tough but everybody was working together and we’re going to learn from this game.” Gore said she personally planned to work on being “more positive.”
The Lady Eagles’ Allister Alexander was pleased with her team’s performance in the game, attributing their win to good communication and being “in [Silverdale’s] box a lot.” She felt the team passed well but could still improve.
Signal Mountain head soccer coach Richard Northcutt was also focused not only on what his team did well but on what they could do to improve. He felt they spread out and completed a lot of passes but didn’t shoot as well as they could have. “I thought we did better in the second half about playing one and two touch and passing and moving instead of standing.” The Lady Eagles have had what Coach Northcutt called a “vicious schedule” playing some very strong teams early in the season and he felt that really gave their team the edge in Thursday’s game.
Silverdale Coach Neil Placer acknowledged the strength of their opponent, saying “I have to give credit to Signal Mountain. They have a very solid team and a lot of depth.” Silverdale’s team, by contrast, is admittedly a young team. Coach Placer said, “There’s a lot of this game that comes down to the discipline of marking people defensively, and that’s not a thing people want to do. They want to always be on offense, but that’s why we got beat this way. I think if we have more discipline on marking, then this is a different outcome.” He felt the Seahawks did well offensively with “the two up-front strikers getting the ball up there and capitalizing on opportunities to score.”
Scoring:
Signal Mountain 7: Usrey (3); Hemstreet, Regrutto (2)
Silverdale 2: Gore (2)
(Contact Jy Fisk at jfisk@siverdaleba.org)