On a chilly Sunday afternoon, the u10 Dragons came out ready to play on the road at Soccer South. Starting out as forwards were Jack VanVeen and Konnor Fisher, with Dylan Reed playing midfield. The Dragons played strong on offense, scoring five straight goals, three coming from Reed, one from VanVeen and one from Fisher. Reed dropped several shots in over the top of the Soccer South goalie, while Fisher and VanVeen cleaned up several rebounds to score four more in the first half. The defense of Zach Phillips and Christian Williams held the Soccer South team scoreless for most of the first half. Phillips showed some great footwork and Williams stopped the attackers in front of the goal to, along with strong goalkeeping by Connor Hage, lead at the half 9-4

The second half was much of the same from the Dragons. Simon Clark came out in goal for the second half and played strong, making several great saves to keep the Soccer South team from catching the Dragons. Tyler Baker and Phillips played great defense to keep the ball on the offensive side for the Dragons most of the second half. The second half offensive attack was led by Hage, Fisher and Reed. Everyone scored thanks to some great passing to the open man. Hage was able get around the defense to get a shot into the back of the net. Fisher chipped a rebound off the goalie into the back of the net. Reed demonstrated his quickness to score five more goals. The Dragons went on to win the game 16-9.

In other week two games…

U7 Division

The U7 girls Cougars took on the challenge of a more experienced team in their division and allowed a few goals in the first half before finding a rhythm of their own early in the second. Defensively, the play of Ashlynn Williams, Sarah Mumm and Kennedy Preston appeared to lock their opponents up on the other side of the field creating several goal scoring opportunities. Jaycee Black and Maren Judisch found themselves deep in their opponent’s territory on several occasions making for some very good looking finishes on goal. A little flair was even thrown into the mix by Audrey Gruber doing a scissors move against her opponents.

U8 Division

The u8 Cool Cats warmed up a cool afternoon by playing like they were on fire. Baylee VanPatten and Keaton Walker worked the ball with great control and speed making many nice moves and putting the ball in the net numerous times. Brilynn Jackson played very well on defense, sending the ball back to her team mates, and scoring the first goal for the Cool Cats. Sara Langenfeld and Josie Nordhagen played like seasoned veterans, demonstrating both ball control and speed while each scoring goals of their own. Madison Darrah got into the mix helping her team mates with a great steal, some very good passes and a goal of her own.

The u8 Killer Cougars put on an offensive show during their game. Logan Niehaus was tenacious in front of the opponent’s goal, putting four in the back of the net. Jack Wilson matched Niehaus’ total, while Carson True, Samuel Overton and Jonathon Kamerick also got in the scoring column multiple times. One of Kamerick’s goals was deftly wrapped around the defender to hit just inside the far post. In the second half, the Coug’s started working together, stringing together passes. Wyatt Kruse earn the assist by drawing a defender to him before passing on to Niehaus, who put the ball into the net. Seconds later, Niehaus drew his defender in before putting the ball onto the shooting foot of Carson True, who later had his own assist. The u8 Sliders didn’t give up, however. Bryce Murray showed off his dribbling skills to continually take the ball down one touch line or the other before putting the ball onto the feet of Skylar Ripperger, Chase Bowlin, Caleb Wenthe or Garret Clark. Clark took a hard shot to the nose at one point in the game, but when the bleeding stopped, he was back out there working hard to put the ball into the net.

The u8 White Tigers have started the season off with a lot of hustle and enthusiasm. The players are starting to get to know each other and it’s becoming real fun. This week, some of the highlights were from April Jackson, Cameron Mesecher and Kirsten Brown who each had some great clearing kicks to get the ball out of the goal area. Ashlyn Highland and Megan Sievers each scored goals for the White Tigers. The girls continue to have fun learning about the game of soccer through dribbling, shooting, passing and defending by all players involved. Go White Tigers!!!!!

U12 Division

The u12 Roadrunners started out strong in their second game of the season, against Winterset. Forward Alex Felger would score the first goal of the game with a powerful shot that made it between the goalie and the near post with an assist from Cody Woodruff. Luke Sinclair used his speed to get around the defense and scored by putting the ball where it couldn’t be blocked. Jose Fuentes scored after doing a fakey right in front of the goalie. Goalie Dean LeClaire only had to handle the ball three times the entire first half. The score at halftime would be 8-0.

In the second half, the scoring continued with good ball control and passing. Midfielder Fuentes scored from outside the goal area with the assist going to Luke Cooper from a throw in. Goalie David McGinnis blocked a shot by Winterset that would have put them on the board. Forward Andrew Pech made a nice shot to the far post easily finding the back of the net with the assist going to Woodruff. The final score 13-0

The u12 Carlisle CRUSH faced Norwalk last weekend coming off their first loss of the season against Nevada on opening weekend. The CRUSH came out strong, controlling the ball and putting Norwalk on their heels. The CRUSH put together several nice attacks on the goal but all shots were wide or stopped by the keeper. As the game progressed the teams settled and Norwalk was able to put several shots on goal and by the end of the first half Norwalk was able to put one in the back of the net.

With the CRUSH down by one at the start of the second half they knew they had to come out strong. And they did, dominating the whole second half, taking twice as many shots as Norwalk. But as in the first half the shots were not on target or the keeper made the save. The CRUSH also had several nice crossing passes in front of the goal but failed to capitalize. Norwalk would score again on a loose ball in front of the goal that the defense was unable to clear. When the final whistle blew marking the end of the game the CRUSH were in disbelief losing a game where they took more shots, dominated possession and were clearly more skilled. Congrats to Norwalk keeper for playing an outstanding game. Player of the game was Jade Gibson who successfully beat several defenders with the move of the game (the pull back) and showed tremendous improvement in all areas of play. We would also like to welcome a new CRUSH teammate this season, Morgan Fox - welcome to the CRUSH family!

U13 Division

U13 Krazy Kickers played two matches this weekend. The first was against Johnston at home. To their fans, it didn’t look good with the Kickers being a player short. Johnston didn’t have any bench players but they would at least have an extra player out on the pitch. Intimidation was not a factor against the Kickers. In fact it was the other way around with Carlisle scoring the game’s first goal within the first three minutes of play. Johnston answered back to tie it, before the Kickers went on a rampage, scoring three more goals by half. The cushion meant the Kickers could shift some formations around to give the defenders a chance to play up and forwards to play back on defense. They scored another goal early in the second half. Then coach Gruber asked the players to loosen up in their intensity a bit and save it for their next match the following day. To Johnston’s credit, they managed to score three more goals making the game much more interesting, but the Kickers had already put the game away with a respectable win thanks to the defensive play of Taryn Smith at keeper and defenders Katie Brown, Katie Clark, Mik McCaughey, Hannah Jutting and Marissa Kephart. Goal scoring and assists went to six different team mates: Katie B, Katie C, Taylor Piper, Haley Gruber, Madison Polley and JoJo Haack. Final score: Kickers 5, Johnston 4.

The Kickers played their second opponent on the road against Bondurant on Sunday. Bondurant appeared sharper than any of the Kicker’s previous three season’s of opponents, and was aggressive in the first half, pushing their defenders past midfield with their keeper close behind despite a stiff wind in their face. The long shot just never came from the Kickers, however, and they found themselves pinned on their own defensive end of the field. Between the defenders of Clark, Brown, Jutting, McCaughey, Mak Curiel, Kephart and goal keeper Smith, they had racked up an impressive 35 saves in the first half alone. In fact the half would have been a shut out had Bondurant not been awarded a free kick on the fringe of the penalty area. The Kickers’ heads-up play immediately created a five person wall which blocked the initial shot, but luck was on the opponent’s side and they were able to finish off the rebound. The second half appeared at first to be in Bondurant’s favor. With the wind, they immediately scored two goals in the first five minutes of play. From that point on, it was a Kicker’s game. Even with only one sub to Bondurant’s five, the Kickers wore Bondurant down and a goal was earned by Haack off of a through pass made by midfielder Polley. A second goal was made a couple of minutes later by Haack but was called back due to an offsides call. The Kickers didn’t have nearly as many shots on goal but the winger work done by mid’s Grace Smith, Gruber and forward Piper created several goal scoring opportunities for the girls. However, the team would run out of time before they were successful to score again and Bondurant would win 3-1. Overall, coach Paul Gruber was impressed with the adjustments the team has done moving up playing full-sided soccer with no practices within the week leading up to these games. Most impressive has been the Kicker’s confidence level as they fail to be intimidated by any of their opponents.