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North Putnam soccer team loses at home to Bruins
ROACHDALE--The Indiana girls' soccer sectionals are under a month away and the North Putnam Cougars got a good dose of what they might see come that time. They hosted sectional opponent Tri-West Bruins Thursday night and the Bruins came away with a 7-2 triumph.
The Cougars (6-2 0-0 WCC) fell for only the second time this season, but it gave coach Chase Hiland a good idea of what they might see in sectionals and how they should prepare. Because he is the only coach, he is unable to do much scouting, so games like this help.
"We get to see what their strengths are," Hiland said. "I haven't been able to scout teams because I'm the only coach and our games are so compacted. It helps me get a good idea of where they are. It helps our girls see what a team like this is going to be like. That's what we need. We need to get a sense of where we are and what we need to work on."
Freshman Abby Spencer put in the only Cougar goal of the half with 28 minutes left. It came off an assist from young standout, Kaelynn Abner
Tri-West tacked on first when sophomore Ashley Fair put one through goalie Claire Sims.
They eventually put three more goals up in the half including a mishap from the Cougars that resulted in an own goal.
"They have a lot of good individual players," Hiland said. "You have to give them some credit."
At halftime Hiland took his team into his hands and told them that no matter what happens they would still see another day. He challenged them to go out there and improve on where they had left off.
"At times I though we had a good second half," Hiland said. "We overthink ourselves too much. Instead of going with our natural reaction just to go, we think too much whether we should do this or should we do that. In sports if you're thinking too much instead of playing naturally, you're going to be a step slow. That's one thing we need to work on."
Though the Cougars gave up three more goals, they saw more time on the offensive side of things. Sophomore Christa McRoy led the forwards and got four shot attempts in the half.
With 23 minutes left in the half a cross from Laurel MacGregor that was set up by McRoy drew the Tri-West goalie out of the goal and resulted in an open goal for Emilee Henninger.
Tri-West scored two more times after the Cougars cut it to three.
Bruins' sophomore Lexi Turner drove the ball past the outreached arms of Sims into the goal with 14:29 left and senior midfielder Marita Vandyke put in the final goal of the game with 5:37 left in the game.
The Cougars get no easy break as they travel to Crawfordsville Saturday morning. Crawfordsville has a turf field, which is something the Cougars have not seen yet.
"We have to have good team defense," Hiland said. "They have a really good striker. She's quick, I know that. We have to come ready to be mentally focused in all aspects of the game. We have the ability to play with Crawfordsville."
At North Putnam
Tri-West 4 3--7
N. Putnam 1 1--2
Scoring
Tri-West: Stroup (2), Vandyke (2), Fair, Jones, Turner.
North Putnam: Henninger, Spencer.