SHS holds off Marion

Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Sikeston soccer player Caleb Davidson tries to keep the away from Marion's Gabe Meadows.

SIKESTON - The Sikeston Bulldogs soccer team posted their first victory of the season in their first home match of the season at the Sikeston Complex on Tuesday night with a 2-1 defeat of Marion, Ill.

The Bulldogs were outshot in the contest 24-12, but nifty ball-handling by Blake Taylor proved to be the difference in the game.

At the 28:00 in the first half, Taylor made a nice steal off a Marion defender in Sikeston's end of the field.

Taylor handle the ball through several Wildcat defenders and found sophomore Caleb Davidson open in front of the goal. Davidson put the ball past the Marion goalie for his first varsity goal of his career.

Sikeston extended the lead to 2-0 at 38:00 on a goal by senior Chris Carnell. Once again Taylor out-dueled a Wildcat defender for possession of the ball and found Carnell open in front of the goal.

Carnell put it in goal on a nice shot to the right of the goalie just past his outstretched arms. The Bulldogs enjoyed a nice cushion at the half of two goals despite being outshot 11-7 in the half.

"We are a little green out there," said Sikeston head coach Derrick Long. "We had two freshmen play the entire game. As a team, we lack depth and we are going to have to fight for an entire game for a win. I thought our first couple of games this year we didn't fight and we came out on the losing end."

The win for Sikeston was against a quality Marion (2-6) squad who has beaten Cape Central this season. The Bulldogs lost to the Tigers in the Notre Dame tournament over the weekend.

"Marion has a good team and they hit some posts in the first half that an inch here or there is a goal," said Long. "It is a good win for the boys to get out of the losing funk."

Leading 2-0 in the second half, the Wildcats controlled the action in their half of the field for much of the half. Marion had several shots go wide of goal and had many chances at the net.

Matt Shumaker scored for Marion at 79:00 on an assist by Gabe Meadows. The Bulldogs held on to the 2-1 lead to the end of regulation thanks in large part to the play of goalie Scott Droddy.

With under two minutes to play in the match, Droddy came up with two superb saves to snuff out the Marion threat. Droddy had saves on a header that seemed destined for the back of the goal and had an acrobatic save on a corner kick by the Wildcats.

"Scott really saved us tonight," said Long. "We could have played a little better in the second half and I believe that we played on our heels late in the game. Droddy made some outstanding saves late and that was the difference."

Besides the play of Taylor and Droddy, Long singled out sophomore Timmy Hart for his stellar play on defense.

"Timmy did an awesome job defending tonight," said Long. "We have to keep building after this win and continue to improve. It is early in the season and I don't put too much stock in wins or losses. But I do want the players to play up to their potential and work as hard as they possibly can. We will get to the point we want to get to. It is going to take some time, but we will get there."

Sikeston (1-3) travels to Kennett today with the junior varsity game slated to start at 5 p.m.

SIKESTON -- The Sikeston tennis team fell to 0-3 on the season with a 7-2 loss to Jackson on Tuesday.

Sikeston got its only two victories from singles player Jenni DeWitt and the doubles team of DeWitt and Tess Marshall.

"Jenni had a good singles match -- she played hard," said Sikeston coach Lynne DeWitt. "Jenni and Tess also had a good doubles match. As a team we really played sluggish. Hopefully when we play them Thursday we can play better."

Sikeston will host Dexter today at 4 p.m. while they will travel to Jackson tomorrow at 4 p.m.

Here are the results from Tuesday's matches.

Singles

1. Jenni DeWitt (S) def. Erinne Haff, 8-0

2. Tess Marshall (S) lost to Sarah Detring, 2-8

3. Danielle Ahlfield (S) lost to Alynda Lane, 1-8

4. Megan Underhill (S) lost to Maura Neader, 3-8

5. Taylor Allen (S) lost to Ellyn Beil, 3-8

6. Hannah Moore (S) lost to Rachel Batz, 0-8

Doubles

1. DeWitt/Marshall def. Lane/Beil, 8-2

2. Ahlfield/Underhill lost to Haff/Detring, 1-8

3. Allen/Moore lost to Neader/Keiper, 3-8

JV winners

none

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