CAMDEN — Sophomore Case Roell scored twice and goalie Jaydin Fields saved six shots to lead Preble Shawnee’s boys soccer team to a 2-1 season-opening win over Middletown Madison on Saturday, Aug, 21.
“We’re still a little rough. Got to knock the rust off still. We’ve had some days where we couldn’t practice because the heat index and at the beginning of the season it’s always conditioning,” Shawnee coach Jason Lucy said. “Overall though, I think we controlled the game. We played good in my opinion.”
Roell scored his first goal with 22:11 remaining the first half to give the Arrows a 1-0 lead.
In the second half, Madison applied more pressure on the Shawnee defense and eventually tied the game on a goal with 14:38 remaining.
It took the Arrows 38 seconds to respond as Roell scored his second of the night with 14 minutes left to put his team back on top 2-1.
“It’s a conditioning issue right now,” Luce said. “Fielders aren’t getting back to help, and they know that, they understand that. But I’ve got two kids, two midfielders with Elliot Feck and Cooper Roell, Elliot’s played for me four years, Cooper’s played for me for three, he had an older brother play for me four, they knew I was upset and they just kind of, do what you need to do. They know when I’m upset so it was ‘okay we got to fix this.’”
Luce said despite the tight game he felt his team controlled the match.
“Even though it was a 2-1 game, I felt that we pretty much controlled the whole game on all aspects,” he said.
In the second game, Shawnee’s girls fell 3-0 to the Mohawks.
Madison took a 1-0 lead with 11:22 remaining in the first half. The visitors added another goal with 32:09 left for a 2-0 lead and finished off the scoring with a goal at the 20:23 mark.
“I told the girls after the game I saw some good things,” Shawnee coach Jeff Stiver said. “I didn’t know what to expect. I thought we competed. We did some good things. Yeah, they got a couple second half goals. We made a couple mistakes, but all in all, having not played 80 minutes at all, still trying to figure out a rotation of who can play where, you know, Madison’s got I think six or seven seniors back, we got three, so we’re just trying to feel our way figuring things out.”
Stiver said Madison might be the best team his squad faces during the regular season, but noted the first four opponents will provide solid competition.
“That’s probably the best team we’ll play. So, I saw us compete, and I liked that. I saw some good things that we can build on,” he said. “I think the four hardest teams, I think Brookville will be decent. We play South, they’re good and Newton is always competitive. So we start the season with four pretty good teams.”
Shawnee’s boys were scheduled to play at Brookville on Tuesday, Aug. 24 and will visit Newton on Thursday, Aug. 26.
The girls were scheduled to host Brookville and travel to Newton on Thursday.
