The 1A #15 ranked Lady Cadets hosted the Lady Stars of Western Boone for their third game of the season. With the heat index in the mid 90s, both teams agreed to move the game to the grass field and move the starting time back one hour to 6:30 p.m. in an effort to play the game. The past three games between the Cascade and Western Boone girls soccer teams have been great early season match-ups that included last second goal excitement and exhausting physical play. The Lady Stars came into the game with an 0-1 record and the Lady Cadets were able to notch two wins in their first two games. A chance to open the season with a three game winning streak was a pleasant surprise for the Lady Cadets and gave some additional motivation for this game. Last year’s game with the Lady Stars was a much more physical game than what the Lady Cadets were ready for and the Stars won 2-1. The Stars used their bodies well to protect the ball but to also move the Cadets off the ball with relative ease. In the pregame huddle, the player captains for the Cadets explicitly told the team to be ready for a physical game and this message didn’t seem to sink in for all the players. With all the starters on the field at the beginning of the game, the Cadets moved the ball cleanly and dominated their attacking third. But as the heat and the physical play started to wear on Cascade, the team lost two starters in the midfield position and had to make lineup changes and substitutions that were not normal patterns. Those replacement players did their best to keep up the flow of the game but they were just never able to replicate the intensity and ball movement of the starters. Western Boone started to control the ball with ease and recover the ball quickly with their physical play. Western Boone had an answer for almost everything that the Cadets were doing in the later portion of the first half and it ended with the score tied at 0-0. The Cadets felt a bit frustrated about not getting an opening goal and the Lady Stars were starting to gain some confidence in their play. In the second half, the Lady Stars started moving the ball more cleanly on both sides of the field. Their first half efforts to press up the attacking left were met many times with a solid Cadet defense that slowed their rhythm. As the Stars opened up the field more, this pressured the Cascade defense to be more active across the entire line and small cracks started to open up. The Lady Stars were able to get twice as many shots as they did in the first half but the Cadets goalie, Zoey Wyneken, stopped these relatively easy shots. Once the ball was in Zoey’s hands, she was able to blast the ball completely out of the defensive third of the field. But where the Cadets struggled without their better players on field was in developing an attacking rhythm. Zoey Wyneken could kick the ball almost all the way up to the offensive players but no one was working together to create scoring opportunities. Creedance Chittenden has been an amazing offensive player for all of her playing career but she has been unable to get the same number of quality possessions as she’s had in other seasons. For much of the second half in the Western Boone game, Creedance was attacking 4 and 5 defensive players with little to no help from the other offensive players. It wasn’t until just a few minutes before the second half water break, that all the Cadets were finally able to create their first good attack. From a corner kick, Creedance struck a good centering pass into the box. Two Cadets and Stars took pokes at the ball before Anna Burns finally struck the ball into the back of the net. This was Anna’s fourth goal of the season and Creedance’s second assist of the season. This 1-0 jolt of energy helped the Cadets survive for the next 15 minutes of play until Western Boone started to throw everything they had at the Cadets defense. The last 10 minutes of the game were dominated by the Lady Stars. They kept the ball in the Cadets defensive third for almost the entire last 10 minutes and created three excellent scoring chances that were stopped by both of the Cascade goalies. The game ended with the same excitement of all the other girls Western Boone/Cascade soccer games and the Cadets were able to prevail 1-0 on a warm August night. The 1-0 victory for the Lady Cadets gets their third victory (3-0, 1-0 ICC) on the season. The Lady Stars’ record now stands at 0-2. The Lady Cadets look ahead for an extended break due to the statewide heat warnings. The expected 100+ heat index warning has moved the game against Cardinal Ritter back to the last week of the season. The next game for the Cadets will be with their nearest ICC rival, the Monrovia Lady Bulldogs who are ranked #13 2A and a defending Sectional champion as well. The Tuesday, August 29th game will start at 5:00 p.m. as part of a boy/girl doubleheader with Monrovia High School. Game Summary Cascade 0 - 1 1 Western Boone 0 - 0 0 Goals/Assists: G: Anna Burns (4) 27:36 2nd A: Creedance Chittenden (2)