The Lady Cadets soccer team (6-5-1) traveled to Southmont High School (10-6) last night to play the host school in the first game of the Sectional 41 competition in the IHSAA Girls Soccer tournament. The Cadets and Lady Mounties met earlier in the season at the same location and the Mounties came away with a 2-1 victory over Cascade. But in Sectional competition, the series between the Cadets and Mounties is tied 2-2 since they were paired together in the 1A realignment back in 2017. Since the 1A realignment, no team outside of Soutmont or Cascade has won the Sectional 41 championship. The Cascade and Southmont girls soccer programs are becoming a good rivalry. As the Cadets started to rebuild their girls soccer program in 2020, the Mounties were square in their sights as the “standard” that the Cadets needed to compete with. The Cadets and Mounties met in the 2020 Sectional championship and the Mounties would steal a victory from the Cadets by scoring a late game tying goal and then ultimately winning in PKs (3-2) for their fourth sectional championship in a row. The 2021 season saw the Cadets put together an excellent season and defeated the Lady Mounties 3-0 in the first round of Sectionals ending the Mounties consecutive sectional championship streak. The 2022 Sectional tournament saw the Cadets and Mounties meet again with the Cadets pulling out another 3-0 victory over in route to the Cadets second sectional championship in a row. For 2023, the Lady Cadets and Lady Mounties met again in the Sectional competition and both teams felt they had a good chance of winning if they could control the pace of play. But the Cadets showed they had a bit more energy at the start of the game when Creedance Chittenden blasted one of her best 20 yard shots of the year past the Southmont goalie. The goal at 36:07 remaining in the first half helped set the emotional tone for the Cadets the rest of the game and allowed the coaching staff to closely monitor the game flow from a 1-0 lead. But the Lady Mounties were fortunate to have one of the better players on the field and the Cadet defense made all efforts to limit her scoring chances. As the first half wound down, the Cadets kept up the attacking pressure and limited the Lady Mounties offensive attempts to just a handful. The Mounties had a different starting goalie from the game two weeks ago and the Cadets made every effort to keep her moving as much as possible across the box but could only get the Creedance Chittenden shot past her. The first half eneded in a 1-0 lead for Cascade. With a 1-0 deficit, Southmont knew in the second half that they needed to change their fortunes to get back into the game and a freak play in the penalty box was just that chance they needed. Around 6:00 into the second half, a ball that was loosely bouncing around the Cascade goal box was collected by a Southmont player who struck a strong shot at the goal. This shot clearly ricocheted off of a Cascade player’s forearm and the penalty kick was awarded to Southmont. But the strange element of this play was that the same Cascade player would then be given a red card for what is called a “DOGSO” in soccer officiating. This meant that not only would the Southmont team be awarded a penalty kick from 12 yards but that the Cascade team would now be only playing with 10 players on the field for the remainder of the match. The penalty kick goal was scored, the game was tied, and the Lady Cadets needed to figure out how to handle playing the rest of the game with only 10 players on the field. After the shock of playing with 10 players wore off, the team played great for the rest of the second half. Southmont only developed a couple of scoring chances during the new 10 man formation but the Cadets found a way to counter the Southmont offense with good offensive stretches of their own. After the regular time expired, the score was tied 1-1 and both teams got ready for the two overtime periods of 7 minutes. During these two overtime periods, the Cadets completely dominated the play and two goals scored by Anna Burns pushed the lead up to 3-1 in favor of the Cadets. The first goal in overtime that Anna scored was set up by an amazing pass from Creedance Chittenden who lobbed a deep pass over the Southmont defense perfectly into Anna’s path toward the goal. Anna took one touch, settled her pace, and then struck a solid shot into the corner of the net giving the Cadets a 2-1 goal. As the teams flipped ends during the overtime, the 2-1 lead allowed the Cadets to strategically keep the Lady Mounties off balance and get out of shape to try and score the game tying goal. The Cadets used Southmont’s desperation to find open spaces and attack them with the intent to score one more goal. Anna Burn’s second goal on the night was because she dribbled into the open space, cut back onto her left foot, and struck a lofting ball that passed just under the crossbar to give the Cadets a 3-1 edge. After the second goal in overtime, both teams got subs off the bench and put them into the game to round out the Sectional experience for everyone. The game ended 3-1 in favor of the Cadets with only 10 players on the field. The 3-1 victory for the Lady Cadets moves the team into the second round of the IHSAA Sectional competition and bumps the teams’ season record to 7-5-1. The Lady Mounties end their excellent season with a record of 10-7. The Cadets now focus their agenda to playing their best game possible against the Greencastle Lady Tiger Cubs on Thursday night at 7:15 p.m. The Cadets lost to the Lady Tiger Cubs 3-1 a month ago and are looking forward to the rematch. The Cadets and Tiger Cubs met last season in the Sectional championship game with the Cadets prevailing 1-0 in an excellent Championship game. Game Summary 1H 2H OT Final Cascade 1 0 2 3 Southmont 0 1 0 1 Goals/Assists: 1H 36:07 Creedance Chittenden (7) OT1 4:50 Anna Burns (9), A: Creedance Chittenden (5) OT2 3:50 Anna Burns (10)