The Apollo Eagles (2-3, 2-1) hoped for a better showing on Thursday night, as the shooting boots went missing against the Daviess County Panthers (4-1, 3-0) in a heavyweight district tilt.
On the night, the visitors ended up with a 5-0 scoreline in their first loss of the district campaign. Daviess County, on the other hand, was able to find the back of the net in style, boasting four different goalscorers in the game.
After the 7 PM start, Daviess County quickly got on the right foot, converting their opening goal in the 17th minute by way of a Carson Thomas free-kick. The ball was spotted at 25-yards out in the heart of the field, following a foul call on an Apollo defender.
Thomas, a senior, wasted no time in stepping up and curling his shot into the upper righthand corner of the goal, just past the reach of the goalkeeper. The free-kick goal was Thomas’ second in as many games for the Panthers, who have rebounded from a goalless effort against Elizabethtown last week with two big wins in as many tries.
Following the first goal was a quick second before the break, this time the goal was scored by freshman Jack Quisenberry in headed fashion in the 31st minute. The delivery was dropped onto the back post by Nick Vincent from a corner, just as Quisenberry reached the height of his leap.
For the freshman, the goal was well-deserved after playing quality defense in a matchup with Apollo’s Harrison Bowman on the left flank all night. The header also marked the young defender’s first career goal.
The best chance of the game for the Eagles came just after halftime, as the visitors were able to string together a succession of quick passes on the counter-attack. Junior Defender Nee Kpaw was on the end of the last ball played through the heart of the Daviess County defense, but his looping effort sailed just over the Panthers’ crossbar and out of play.
Instead of a much-anticipated opening goal for Apollo, the last 40 minutes in the game consisted of three unanswered goals for the home team, as Daviess County added to their lead in clinical fashion.
Goals by Sean Higgs (assisted by Tanner Andersen) and Carter Payne (assisted by Tyler Wilkerson) sandwiched an unfortunate own goal for Apollo (assisted by Noah Myers) to seal the game.
For the Panthers, the goal from Payne equaled the second score of his young career as the freshman has been able to capitalize early on the playing time he’s received. After the victory, Daviess County head coach Doug Sandifer commented on the solid effort from his young core, including Carter Payne and Jack Quisenberry.
“It’s good for the younger guys to get in the game and have some success,” Sandifer said. “Guys like Carter Payne have been able to get in the game and make an impression on the heels of a few injuries to our older players. It’s good to get a little more balance out of the second guys coming in, giving us the ability to get minutes out of 16 or 17 guys.”
What can often be lost in a high-scoring triumph is the stellar play from the defensive players on the opposite side of the field. Senior goalkeeper Cody Clark addressed the cohesion he sees his teammates forming in the back of his team’s setup.
“As the season progresses our defense is starting to come together,” Clark said. “This season started a little bit rough, but I’m really starting to feel that sense of trust that I’ve been used to with my teammates in previous years. We stayed goal-side of the offense tonight and everyone made good passes and we were able to move the ball easily.”
Apollo head coach Ryan Poirer came into the contest with the cross-town rivals from Daviess County holding high expectations for his team. However, the frustrated coach did not mince words as he reflected upon his frustration with the outcome of the match.
“I’ll be honest, we expected to win,” Poirer said. “We didn’t play well in any facet of the game, and it was just a really disappointing result.”
The Eagles will look to bounce back to form on Saturday in a road matchup against University Heights at 1:30 PM. The Panthers, on the other hand, will look to keep up the winning momentum at home on Saturday against Oldham County. That match is scheduled for an 11:30 AM start.
