The Lady Cadets soccer team traveled south down State Road 39 last night to face a local conference rival in the Monrovia Lady Bulldogs. With both teams undefeated and ranked in the Indiana Soccer Coaches Association most recent poll (Cascade #15 1A, Monrovia #10 2A), there was a general feel that this could be an excellent match for both teams early in the season. But Monrovia’s offensive firepower this season (32 goals in 4 games) gave the Bulldogs a marked advantage over the Cadets and highlighted an issue that the Lady Cadets needed to address, offensive inefficiency. With only 5 goals in their first three games, the Lady Cadets were scrambling to find a way to increase their own offensive movements while still limiting the Lady Bulldogs scoring attack. The last four meetings of these two teams have favored the Cadets (3 wins to 1 loss) but last year’s 6-1 thrashing by Monrovia shows a marked shift in the rivalry in favor of the Bulldogs. The Cadets did everything in their defensive organization to try and hold off the Lady Bulldogs offense but the first goal of the game was quickly conceded almost 8:00 into the game and a second goal was scored a short while later. Given the Cadets were now down 2-0, still had over 65:00 minutes to play, and Monrovia seemingly to be scoring at will, it would be easy to presume that the final outcome of the game would be a massive blowout by the Lady Bulldogs. But this year’s Lady Cadets soccer team is surprising everyone and they rallied together to hold off the Bulldogs for the rest of the half. Halftime came with the Lady Bulldogs up 2-0 over the Lady Cadets. The Cadets goalie Zoey Wyneken stopped 12 of the 14 shots on target for the first half and did a great job helping to start the offensive counter attacks. The start of the second half showed exactly what the Cadets could do if they worked together as a team. The Cadets goalie, Wyneken, made a clean save on a weak shot from the Bulldogs. The ball was quickly rolled out to Anna Burns who made an excellent penetrating pass toward the Monrovia defensive line. After an error by the Monrovia defensive player put the ball right in front of the streaking Creedance Chittenden, Creedance squared up her hips and struck an excellent shot toward the Monrovia goal that found the back of the net and cut the Bulldog lead in half. Sadly, the Cadets only managed two shots on target the whole game but one of them dynamically changed the game for both teams. The Cadets kept trying to find the scoring magic for a second time but the Bulldogs picked up their energy to a second gear and started to push back on the Cadets defense with better organization and passing sequences. Even with the new effort from the Monrovia attacking players, the Lady Cadets goalie kept the Cadets in the game with her stellar play and the score remained 2-1 until 20:00 remained in the game. The Bulldogs would finally score a third goal in the game when Monrovia’s goal scoring leader struck a solid cutting ball across the Cascade goalie’s movement. The 3-1 score put Monrovia comfortably back ahead and the Bulldogs kept pressing the Cascade defense for more goals. Monrovia would find a fourth goal with about 16:00 remaining in the game when the Cadet defense poorly controlled the soccer ball right in front of the Cascade goal. The 4-1 lead for Monrovia looked to be the final score of the game as the Cadets and Bulldogs started to make late game substitutions and the clock wound down to under a minute of time. However, the Cadets made two critical mistakes and allowed two last second goals for the Bulldogs and the final score ended 6-1 in favor for the undefeated Monrovia Bulldogs. The 6-1 defeat to the Bulldogs was the first loss of the season for the Lady Cadets (3-1, 1-1 ICC) on the season. The Lady Bulldogs’ record now stands at 5-0 and a commanding lead in conference standings (3-0 ICC). The Lady Cadets will have one day of practice before they turn right around and face another ICC opponent in the Triton Central Lady Tigers (4-0, ICC 1-0). The Lady Tigers are off to an excellent start of the season with an undefeated record and an improved offensive rhythm that has yielded an excellent Goals Against to Goals For contrast (12 Scored, 1 Against). The game at Triton Central will start at 6:00 p.m. Game Summary Monrovia 2 - 4 1 Cascade 0 - 1 0 Goals/Assists: G: Credence Chittendenn (1) 35:32 2nd A: Anna Burns (1)