By Bruce Wallace

The SoBoCo girls soccer team seems to get a kick out of opening the season at the Lebanon Tournament.

The Eagles won the annual opening tourney in Lebanon this past weekend with two wins and a tie – and high marks from their coach. “I thought we played well all weekend,” said Eagles coach Chris Miller of his team’s opening effort.

“Our fitness will get better and I really liked how we approached things and how we played.” The Eagles defeated Crocker 10-0 on Friday, defeated Lebanon in game one on Saturday 1-0 then tied Liberty Mountain View 0-0 in the final game.

In Friday’s opener, Kate Ponder scored four goals, Faryn Griffin had 3 goals, Koyia Prince scored twice and Skyler Beeson had the final goal as the Eagles rolled over Crocker 10-0. However, the Eagles had a tougher time putting the ball in the net on Saturday as Surray Prince scored the only gaol in SoBoCo’s two games.

It was somewhat because the Eagles were simply unlucky. “It seems that on Friday anything we threw up there went in the net and on Saturday we couldn’t buy a goal,” Miller said. The Eagles hit the crossbar seven times in their 0-0 tie with Liberty.

No doubt, there are high school soccer teams that go through an entire season without hitting the crossbar more than once or twice.

“I’ve never had a team do that,” Miller said, still surprised by the statistic on Monday.

In both Saturday games, the Eagles had the most possession and in both games they faced good goalkeepers. The Eagles midfield and defense, live up to their pre-season billing.

“We gave up about three decent shots the entire weekend,” Miller said.

Defensively, the Eagles had Riley Scheer and Lauren Gateway in middle and Ellie Lacy and Reaganne Scheer and Savana Johnson on the outside held all three games. At midfield, the Eagles are anchored by Kylie Shoot in the middle and have Sara Johnson, Surraya Prince, Beeson and Callie Barnett. The Eagles hosted Fulton on Tuesday (see bocojo.com for results) and host St. James on Thursday at 5 p.m. Both opponents are a part of the Eagles district, along with Osage.