The Lady Cadets traveled on Saturday morning for their first Indiana Crossroads Conference matchup of the season. The Beech Grove Lady Hornets were the conference opponent for the Cadets and the Cadets wanted to continue their winning streak of 3 games against Beech Grove. Last season, the Lady Cadets handled the Hornets relatively easily with a 9-0 victory but the Lady Hornets had a State Championship coach at the helm who was looking to rebuild the program. The Cadets 9-0 victory last season was a bit misleading. The Cadets exploited the high pressing line of the Lady Hornets to create 6 easy breakaway goals during the first half. These easy goals slowly broke the emotional effort of the Lady Hornets and the last goals of the game were scored on sloppy shots and weren’t really pressured by the Hornet defense. Flash forward to the 2023 season and the Lady Hornets showed in the first 20 minutes of this morning’s game would not have the same results of last season. The Hornets played very physical and kept great position on the field to slow the Cadets attacking rhythms in the opening minutes. The Lady Cadets adjusted and moved the ball back in their possession and looked for other opportunities to build an offensive rhythm. The Cadets would find that offensive rhythm using set pieces off corner kicks and the first goal would come from these sets. The first goal for the Lady Cadets was scored by the last player to join the team, Vayla Mansfield. Vayla decided to join the Girls Soccer team after school had started and was trying to catch up quickly on the drills, game language, and basic movements of the game. But Vayla was in the right place at the right time on Saturday morning to put the ball into the back of the net. The Lady Cadets had taken three other corner kicks in this extended offensive segment in the Hornets defensive third but no one could get a controlling touch on the ball to get a clean shot off on the goal. Creedance Chittenden chose to take the fourth corner kick and the Cadets used a special sequence to get the ball back onto Creedance’s foot in a better shooting position. Once Creedance lofted the ball into the central area of the goal box, the ball bounced loosely off a Cadet and then off a Hornet and right into Vayla’s area. Vayla took two strong steps toward the ball and blasted a side footed shot just past the Beech Grove goalie. Vayla stood in shock that she had scored a goal and her Lady Cadets teammates mobbed her in excitement for her accomplishment. The Lady Cadets now had a 1-0 lead and all the pressure was put onto the Hornets to find that game tying goal. Being down 1-0 forced the Lady Hornets to start spreading their players to move the ball more easily and this in turn created more room for the Lady Cadets to try and add a second goal. Creedance Chittenden and Ava Allen took good shots on goal as the Beech Grove defense was more spread out but it would be Anna Burns who would penalize the Hornets giving up space in the midfield. Anna’s first goal of the morning would come with about 8:00 remaining in the first half. The Beech Grove goalie was restarting play with a goal kick but this kick was passed up the middle and mishandled by the Beech Grove player. This small mistake allowed Anna Burns to quickly press up and recover the ball back and turn toward the Beech Grove goal. Anna then took a peak at the goal and from a distance of 30 yards, she blasted the ball over the head of Beech Grove goalie. This second goal for the Cadets helped get some of the starters off the field and get ready for the second half. The second half of the game was very different from the first half. The Cadets had a 2-0 lead and the Hornets were trying to find answers for their most pressing questions: How to keep the Cadets from scoring more and how can they score goals of their own? To hold the Cadets from scoring more goals, the answer to this question was easily found in pushing 8 players back into the defensive third. Sports commentators would call this strategy “parking the bus” in front of the goal. It does help the defensive team limit shots on goal but it also prevents any manageable offensive patterns of play. By taking this defensive minded approach, the Lady Hornets needed the Cadets to make mistakes to gain offensive momentum. The Cadet mistakes the Hornets needed would come in the second half. Whether from misplayed deflections or not cleanly handling a pass, the Cadets started to give the Lady Hornets some momentum to build an offensive attack. Beech Grove finally got onto the scoreboard when they poked a deflected kick past the Cadets goalkeeper with about 8:00 off the clock in the second half. This brought the score back to 2-1 and gave some life to the Lady Hornets. But the best three players on the field yesterday were wearing Cascade colors and in time these players would find a way to score another goal against the defensive concentrated Hornets. Anna Burns’ scored her second goal of the game by just outplaying the worn out Hornet defense. As the Cadets were in the midst of another long sequence of offensive possessions in the Beech Grove defensive third, the ball went out of bounds for another Cascade throw-in. Taylor Trusty grabbed the ball and made a good throw-in toward Anna Burns. Anna let the ball go over her head and she quickly turned around to make an offensive play on the ball. A Beech Grove defender also made a play on the ball but she was unable to cleanly maintain control. As the Beech Grove defender bobbled the ball, Anna Burns outran her and took a clean shot on the goal that surprised the Lady Hornets goalkeeper. With the goalkeeper making almost no reaction to the shot, the ball passed cleanly into the back of the net and put the Cadets back up with a two goal lead at 3-1 and still 24:00 remaining on the clock for another goal. But a fourth goal never came about for the Cadets and as time expired on the clock, bench subs were moved in and out of the game to give more players rest and playing time. The game ended with a 3-1 victory for the Cadets. The 3-1 victory for the Lady Cadets gets them a conference win (1-0) and a second victory (2-0) on the season. The Lady Hornet’s record now stands at 1-1 with a 0-1 conference record. The Lady Cadets look ahead now to face the Lady Stars from Western Boone who will travel to Cascade High School for a non-Conference, non-Sectional game on Tuesday, August 22nd. The Lady Cadets and Lady Stars are 1-1-1 over the past three seasons and have played some really intense and competitive games. Game Summary Beech Grove 0 - 1 1 Cascade 2 - 1 3 Goals/Assists: G: Vayla Mansfield (1) 19:03 1st A: Creedance Chittenden (1) G: Anna Burns (2) 7:36 1st G: Anna Burns (3) 26:34 2nd A: Taylor Trusty (1) MaxPreps Highlight Video: https://www.maxpreps.com/in/clayton/cascade-cadets/soccer/girls/media/videos/?videoid=59dc8f0a-4f75-4d02-ab02-698798466be0