CAMDEN — With the soccer season winding down, Tri-County North’s girls’ soccer team is trying to play the role of spoiler, and the Panthers boys’ team is continuing its quest to reach the top of the league standings.
Last week, the Panthers pulled off a sweep of host Preble Shawnee, with the girls team claiming a 1-0 win to hand the Arrows their first loss in the Western Ohio Athletic Conference and the boys squad scored the final three goals of the contest to pull out a 6-3 win to remain in second place in the WOAC in matches played on Tuesday, Sept. 28.
Natalie Lefeld scored the lone goal from the right wing near the top of the box with just under 15 minutes remaining in the first half and the Panthers defense kept the Arrows off the board.
“It was a heck of a shot,” North coach Ted Thies said. “She’s got a big leg. She can hit him from just about anywhere.”
The win avenged a 1-0 loss to Shawnee on Oct. 2.
“We’re playing excellent, have been playing excellent soccer lately and finally we knocked off one of the better teams in the league,” Thies said. “Probably the best game I’ve seen them play play in a while. I told the girls that was probably last thing on their mind when they woke up this morning was losing us. We want to make it interesting towards the end of the year.”
The Panthers nearly shocked league-leader Twin Valley South two days later, but came up short 1-0. Thies said his team is relishing the role spoiler.
“They’re excited about it. We’re not gonna make it to probably one or two, but we know that we can ruin somebody’s year,” Thies said. “That’s kind of their goal. I hate to be like that but we got to play spoiler.”
North is now 3-5-2 overall and 2-4-2 in the WOAC. The Panthers were scheduled to play at Dixie on Tuesday and visit National Trail on Thursday to close out the regular season.
For Shawnee, it was a disappointing loss.
“I told them if we didn’t play well and and obviously score, we would get beat,” Shawnee coach Jeff Stiver said. “The league was in our hands. I mean, all we got to do is win. We had destiny in our own hands. We didn’t have to rely on anybody to beat somebody. Of course now it takes a lot of things to happen.”
The Arrows were scheduled to play at Eaton on Tuesday and host Dixie on Thursday. They will close out the week with a trip to Newton on Saturday.
In the boys game, North jumped out to a 2-0 lead at 19:30 mark of the first half and led 3-2 at the half.
In the second half, the Arrows tied the contest just over three minutes in only to see North tally the final three goal over the last 31 minutes.
Jackson Isaacs score three times for North, including the go-ahead goal the with 31:27 left in the second half. Conner Evans and Chase Harry also scored for the Panthers.
For Shawnee, Luke Clevenger, Elliot Feck and Javier Preciado scored goals.
North closed out the week with a 4-2 win over Twin Valley South on Thursday and a 2-0 over The Miami School on Saturday.
Shawnee dropped a 3-2 decision to West Carrollton on Saturday.
North (9-5 overall, 5-2 WOAC) sits alone in second place behind Newton (4-1-1). North was scheduled to play at Dixie on Tuesday, Oct. 5.
Shawnee fell to 0-5 in the WOAC and 2-8 overall. The Arrows have a busy week. They were scheduled to host Valley View on Monday and Eaton on Tuesday. They will have league games with Dixie on Thursday and at Newton on Saturday.
