Eagles Soccer Beats District Opponent Moberly

Miles Butler (11) controls the ball for Southern Boone. The freshman forward has provided a strong scoring threat for the Eagles this season.

By: Todd Pridemore
Last week, Southern Boone played its first home matches of the season. On Monday, the Eagles welcomed district opponent Moberly Spartans (2-2) to Ashland. One knowledgeable fan commented before play began that this matchup might turn out to be the district title pairing in early November. Once started, it was easy to see why the Spartans were a tough opponent.
They played a physical style of soccer and had speed at several positions on the pitch. They took the lead in the 13th minute off a free kick set play from 35 yards beyond the Eagles’ goal. Southern Boone defended the scripted play poorly, which led to a relatively easy open shot and score. However, the Eagles responded less than eight minutes later when freshman Miles Butler used his ball skills to work the ball through two Spartan defenders to earn a clear shot, which he converted. The 1-1 tie carried into the second half.

Southern Boone then played its best 40 minutes of soccer so far this season and claimed the lead in the 48th minute. Butler moved the ball to Drew Dial near the Spartans’ goal, and the senior captain launched a strong shot that the goalie deflected up, but the ball fell behind the keeper and rolled into the net. Both teams traded scoring opportunities as the minutes ticked by, but strong play by Eagles defenders Zachary Hawkins, Ethan Brown, Easton Cooper, Alex Sachs, and goalkeeper Emery Arnold prevented Moberly from notching another goal.

The final score of the match came with under four minutes remaining, when Dial sent a through pass behind the Spartan’s back line that Butler ran onto and fired past the keeper, making the final margin of victory 3-1. The JV match didn’t go so well for the Eagles, with Southern Boone falling by a score of 1-4. Freshman midfielder Zeke Weddle scored the lone goal for the home team.

Two days later, on Wednesday, the Eagles welcomed Sunnydale Academy from Centralia to Ashland. The visitors featured a roster full of international students with loads of talent. By all measures, Southern Boone was outmatched on the pitch. It also did not bode well that one of the Eagles most talented players, senior Alejandro Pagoada, sat out this game with an injury. Sunnydale needed only six minutes to net their first goal, which came off a corner kick header at the far post. That scoring combination was duplicated ten minutes later with another header goal that gave the visitors a 2-0 lead.

The Eagles began to create chances of their own as the first half continued, but gave up another goal to the visiting team in the 26th minute on a counter attack. Southern Boone was down 0-3 at halftime. The Eagles finally notched a goal after center back Zach Hawkins was fouled in the Sunnydale box and Brayden Watson converted the penalty kick. However, the visitors scored in the 65th and 72nd minutes to hand the Eagles a 1-5 defeat.

That loss put the Eagles record at 4-3 on the season. The team doesn’t play again until this Friday, Sept. 20 when they host a very strong Marshall team (4-0) in Ashland at 12:00 noon and Laquey (2-2) that evening at 6:00pm.