(Story by Coach Shannon Grable)
     It’s always good to start off on the right foot for any game.  Well, scoring in the first 5 minutes doesn’t hurt the cause any at all.  The Chillicothe Boys soccer team did just that on Tuesday night on route to a 6-3 victory of the Benton Cardinals of St. Joseph, MO. 

      Freshman Steven Cooper got the game started with a  finish off a corner kick by Grant Peterson in the first 5 minutes for the 1-0 lead.  That was just the start for Mr. Cooper.  A breakaway goal a few minutes later made the game 2-0.  Miles McLemore came into the game and scored on his own breakaway goal to make the score 3-0 midway through the first half.

     A stingy defense allowed the Hornets to maintain possession of the ball and control the play of the game throughout the game.  Especially in the first half where goalkeeper Troy Toedebusch helped keep the Cardinals off the scoreboard.   The defense was able to step in front of many Cardinal passes and not allow the Benton offense to organize.  Mr. Toedebusch was able to put back the few chances they created and notch a shutout for the first half.  

     While the defense was keeping up it’s end, the offense kept rolling.  Steven Cooper was able to get behind the Benton defense again and made it a first half hat trick and bring the score to 4-0.  Miles would not allow the freshman to out-duel the senior so he scorched a hard shot into the right side of the goal to make the game 5-0 before halftime.   Other than the first goal of the match all the other goals were played by through balls at midfield that primarily came from the defense and midfielders.   These through balls played diagonally frustrated the Benton defense that was attempting to trap the Hornet forwards in an offside position. 

     The second half showed that the Hornet defense can become something special.  Even though the Benton squad was attempting to apply more pressure by playing more direct, the defense did not falter.  The defense of Laine Saunders, Quentin Mammen, Connor Ruoff, Josh Thieme, Jeremiah Applebury, Jacob McKiddy and Trey Van Houtan played a wonderful game.   Jimmy Chapman took over in the net in the second half and put back a few long shots taken by the Cardinals. 

     The night however, would belong to Steven Cooper.  On a beautiful split of the Benton defense by Miles McLemore, Cooper was able to breakaway again and head to goal for his 4^th goal of the game to make it 6-0 Chillicothe.

     After some adjustments to the Hornet alignment were made Benton was able to score 3 late goals in the last 15 minutes to make the final score 6-3.  The final score does not, however, indicate the type of game that was played by the Hornet team.  It was a dominating effort, but one that can be improved upon and the team is ready to take the next step.  The win improves the Hornets to 2-3 on the season.