By Denis House
BEREA—Even though it was their first regular season game, Coach Harmon Hodge already knows what his South Laurel Cardinals need to work on.
Finishing and not allowing multiple goals in a span of minutes.
In their two scrimmages against Berea and Madison Central, those two things proved fatal. And again against Madison Southern Tuesday night in a 3-1 defeat.
The game was tied 1-1 until the 56th minute, when the Eagles found the back of the Cardinal net twice within a minute span to make the final 3-1.
“We gave up three goals in four minutes to Berea, and four goals in the first eight minutes to Madison Central,” Hodge said. “We’ve got to play an entire 80 minutes. Plus, we had opportunities to put the game away; we just didn’t thank advantage.”
The host Eagles took a 1-0 lead in the 14th minute when Chad Weaton stepped in front of a clearance attempt by Justin Lewis to intercept the ball, then beat keeper Jamie Gibbs, who started over regular keeper Tyler Huff, who sat the first 20 minutes of the match, along with Dustin and David Herron.
South Laurel’s first good opportunity came in the 26th minute, when Jonathan McClure sent a through pass to Jeffrey Poston, was beat the offsides trap and was left one-on-one with the Southern keeper. But Poston shot the ball straight at the keeper, who made the easy save.
Two minutes later, Caleb Spencer sent a throw-in to Dylan Berry, but his shot was also saved.
The Cardinals finally found the back of the net in the 34th minute as McClure assisted on a nice goal by Poston, tying the match at 1-1.
The game stayed deadlocked until the 56th minute, when Weaton sent a ball to A.J. Jett, who beat Huff for a 2-1 lead. Just seconds later, Lewis was carded for tripping a Madison Southern player just outside of the box. A free kick was sent in to Weaton, who got a foot on it to send the ball into the front of the South Laurel goal, where Jett scored his second goal to make the final 3-1.
Hodge was pleased with the way his team passed the ball in the loss.
“We worked the ball better than in the last two years,” Hodge said. “But we’re going to have to finish and have people show up to practice everyday so we can play with all our starters.”
The Cards are now off until Monday, when they host Garrard Co.
