CAMDEN — The Preble Shawnee Lady Arrows are piling on victories for their record books, winning two more games earlier this week. They destroyed Dixie 9-0 on Monday, Oct. 10, and dominated Madison 5-0 on Tuesday, Oct. 11. The Arrows have won five straight games games and six of the last seven. All six were shutouts.
“We know what we get coming in with Dixie,” said Shawnee coach Kevin Schaeffer. “I thought the Greyhounds played a little harder this time around than last time, but when you outmatch a team as we did tonight, regardless of the opponents’ efforts, it is very easy to not play great, meaningful soccer. We passed the ball fairly well and we looked to spread them out before throwing numbers forward.”
Scoring for the Arrows were: Saylor Jewell (three goals), Alyssa Davidson (two goals, one assist), Riane Woodard (two assists), Brooke Kiracofe (two assists), Brenna Woodard (one goal), Nicole Sims (one goal), Olivia Rader (one goal), Hope Ballinger (one goal), and Logan Hollon (one assist).
“Even when I subbed in a bunch of inexperienced players, we still managed to hold possession and spread the ball over the entire field. This in itself is quite a compliment to our soccer maturity,” Schaeffer said. “Many teams do not know how to do this in a game like this so I am proud of our efforts here. The two best things that came from tonight were two-fold. The first was our wealth of playing time for everyone. All players played a minimum of eight minutes, most played 20 minutes. Our core 12-13 players probably averaged 40-50 minutes total. Second, we came out relatively healthy. We have a few players who are a little dinged-up and this limited playing time will prove to be quite helpful.”
The Tuesday game against Madison turned out to be a bit tougher contest. The Mohawks had suffered a 7-0 loss to the Arrows earlier in the season. But Shawnee beat them again, 5-0.
“They seemed to play harder and were more physical, which we had been warned about,” Schaeffer said. “In the first half, we missed countless opportunities to score, by being offside or just plain unlucky. Frequently tonight, we would make multiple passes in the middle of the field because we could, but the better option was to play direct immediately. Those extra passes allowed Madison to pull defenders up and ‘catch’ us offside.”
“For most of the first half, the game was pretty stale,” Schaeffer said. “We would possess, we would kick, we would be offside, we defended a bit. Repeat. Near the end of the first half, we scored a second goal and the game began to get a bit chippy and we stooped to that level. But in the second half, we played a lot more effectively — that is, we played a style that was better suited to beating a team like Madison.”
Preble Shawnee ended up scoring three goals in the second half.
Jewell had two goals and one assist. Davidson had two goals and one assist, Abby Bulach had two assists, Rader had one goal and Hollon had one assist.
With the two goals scored by Jewell, she now holds the single-season scoring record in Preble Shawnee soccer history with 26 goals with one more regular season game to go.
With a win or a tie against Milton-Union on Thursday, Oct. 13, the Lady Arrows could secure second place in the Southwestern Buckeye League.
Preble Shawnee will compete in the Dayton 5 Sectional Tournament on Saturday, Oct. 22, as the No. 5 seed, having earned a first round bye. They will play the winner of a Troy Christian/Brookvile game set for Tuesday, Oct. 18.
