The Lady Cadets (0-0, 0-0 Monon) traveled to Southmont to start their 2026 season. Traveling to a tough conference game was not the Lady Cadets preferred start for the season. The Cadets weren’t able to play their scrimmage game to Decatur Central due to severe weather, and another schedule change pushed their first game back to Southmont. The extra week of practice and preparation did help the Lady Cadets. But when the game started Saturday morning, the Lady Mounties had already played two games and were far more skilled and game-experienced than the Lady Cadets. The first half of the game showed exactly where both teams were at in the early portion of the season. The Lady Cadets have had plenty of time to practice their defensive formation and work on short build-out patterns. The Lady Mounties were well established in moving the ball up and down the field after playing two games. Southmont took some really good shots in the first half but none of these shots made it to the back of the net. Some of the Southmont shots ricocheted off the goalposts but most of the shots were safely secured by the Cascade goalkeeper who made really good saves for most of the first half. The first half ended 0-0 with the Cadets only developing a few offensive attacks and spending most of the time in a defensive position. The Lady Mounties talked about strategy and space during the halftime break. When the second half whistle blew, the Lady Mounties were attempting to spread the Lady Cadets out across the whole field and tried to dribble a little more up the field before they passed up the middle. This new pressure really disrupted the already tired Lady Cadets' defensive effort and led to three goals over a span of 10:00 minutes in the middle of the second half. These three goals secured the win for Southmont and allowed the Lady Mounties to start getting newer players onto the field for game experience. The Lady Cadets still played as hard as they could for the rest of the game after the three goals, but Southmont’s confidence, game experience, and a little frustration by the Cadets allowed one more goal before the final horn sounded to end the game. The 0-4 loss for the Cadets (0-1, 0-1) starts their season off with a disappointing conference loss, but they know there is another conference game coming up quickly when Cascade travels to Western Boone on Tuesday, August 25th. Both Western Boone and Southmont are scheduled to compete with Cascade for the IHSAA 2A Sectional 27 title. Southmont’s next game will be on Thursday, August 27th when they host the Northview Lady Knights. Game Summary 1H 2H Final Cascade 0 0 0 Southmont 0 4 4 Goals/Assists: