Carlisle Soccer Club travelling teams have had difficulty scoring goals and getting results the past couple of seasons, but things are changing this season. Two u12 girls teams – the Crush and the Krazy Kickers – are setting the pace in their respective divisions.

The Crush (pictured) faced a tough team from Newton on Sunday, April 27th, as they tried to maintain their spotless record. It would prove to be the most challenging game of the season as Newton took control early with three shots on goal within the first three minutes of play. The Crush were on their heals for the majority of the first half as Newton showed both speed and good ball handling skills. The Crush would have the upper hand when they got to the offensive end. Jessica Payne dribbled the ball past several defenders to the left side, and then made a nice crossing pass in front of the goal where Madison Staecker would put it away for the first goal. Newton would have several quick counter attack opportunities, but with Maddie Roberts in goal, only one of 13 shots would make it in the goal. The half ended in a 1-1 tie.

The Crush made position adjustments for the second half to help defend against Newton’s counter attacks and turned up their intensity at both ends of the field. Although Newton was able to move toward the goal, the defense of Ashton Goodhue-Nolte, Amanda Hardin and Sierra Andreas and keeper Victoria Carra held Newton scoreless for the entire second half. Likewise, the offense stepped up with midfielders Katy Rick, Emily Loomis, Jade Gibson, Alexis Lambson and Taylor Nelson battling for the ball to set up several scoring opportunities. Lindsey Kamerick made a nice centering pass to Payne who scored with a hard shot past the keeper. Then Roberts, playing forward, would steal the ball midfield, beat two defenders and blast one into the back of the net. Carra made a nicely placed goal kick to Taylor Whipple who made a nice first touch into space before taking back to the goal for a score. The last goal would be scored by Kamerick off a nice pass from Roberts. With a 5-1 victory over Newton, the Crush clinched the top spot in their division.

The Krazy Kickers, played two games on the weekend of April 26 and 27th. Their Saturday match was against Altoona, a team they had beat earlier in the season, 2-0. The outcome of this game was the same in score, with the Kickers winning again 2-0, but the truth laid in the details. The Kickers scored their first goal in the 10th minute mark on a crossing pass from forward Jenna Dille to JoJo Haack. The second goal mirrored the first, this time coming in the 10th minute of the second half with the cross coming from Haack to Dille, who finished in a similar fashion. The big change in this game, however, was the shooting differential between the two teams. Altoona struggled to get on the Kickers’ half of the field against Carlisle’s defenders Katie Clark, Katie Brown, Hannah Jutting and Madison Polley, and only put three shots on goal to the Kickers’ 13. The play of the game came in the closing minutes as Altoona’s star forward took on Kicker defender Katie Clark: the one-on-one challenge lasted a full minute and the dual looked personal as the Altoona player ignored all request from her coach to make a pass. Clark never gave up her back to the ball, keeping herself in between her goal and the would-be attacker. Eventually the Altoona forward would exhaust herself and all the moves she knew and simply coughed the ball up to Katie who more than graciously took it up the field.

The Sunday match was against West Des Moines. For fans that have been tracking the girls, the Kickers played an incredible game against West Des Moines last season, rallying from a 0-3 deficit to almost win the game. On this day, West Des Moines appeared to have improved. They beat Winterset, which is the only team to beat the Kickers this season, a couple weeks ago. The Kickers struck early and often, tallying four goals in each half, with Haley Gruber, Dille, Taylor Piper and Haack each scoring two goals a piece. Offensively, West Des Moines struggled to get by the Carlisle midfielders Mollie Tibbits, Mak Curiel, Mik McCaughey and Marissa Kephart. Anything that did slip by was quickly returned by the defenders. In fact, WDM was limited to only three shots all game, with none in the first half. The Kickers gave up one goal in the end to secure a solid 8-1 victory.

In games played in-house in Carlisle, here were the highlights:

The u8 Pumas demonstrated a lot of heart and hustle. April Jackson had a break out game for the Pumas, providing both goals and assists for her teammates. Goals were also scored by Ashlyn Highland, Jocelyn Haack and Jack Wilson. Zach Hoagland, Ella Kinter Wyatt Kruse and Megan Sievers also played key roles in the game, dribbling the ball up the field, making key defensive stops and making critical passes to teammates. With the season being half over, the Pumas are really playing better as a team than they did at the beginning of the year. The parents and coaches love to see the key pass to set up a goal opportunity for a teammate. Keep up the great work PUMAS.

The u8 Tigers took to the field with great enthusiasm and energy and last Sunday. The game got off to a fast start with Tyler Baker scoring the first goal. Keaton Walker demonstrated great ball control by cutting around her opponent to score several goals. Samuel Overton, surrounded by the opposing team, made a nice pass to Trever Baker. Samuel Overton demonstrated his speed and ball handling while scoring a goal . Tim Black, Austin Black and Noah Niehaus played well on defense and assisted on many plays. Overall, the Tigers had a fun, fast, hard game.

The u8 Jaguars took on an experienced opponent but managed to score two great goals. Darek Tingle, again, led the offense, scoring the goals and setting up his teammates. Carson True anchored the defense, peeling a ball off his own goal line in one instand, and came up the middle on two different occasions to barely miss crossing passes from Tingle. Rachel Studer turned up the volume on her game, using a cut move to beat her opponent on the dribble, but the shot went just wide of the goal.