3rd Region soccer official Robin Joska blew his whistle three times Monday afternoon signifying the start of the match between Daviess County and McCracken County in Owensboro and when he did, Panther coach Doug Sandifer said it was a feeling of relief.
For Sandifer, what started as different ended in satisfaction as the Panthers cruised to a 5-0 victory over the Mustangs with all five goals coming in the final 40 minutes.
“(It was a) little surreal actually,” he said. “I never thought I’d say that but it was kind of in some ways a weight lifted off. We finally get to play a game and like (McCracken County coach Michael Wiersema) and I talked about before the game, if nothing else, we’ll get one game in this year. We’re happy to play this one.”
Most of the first half wasn’t the type of soccer Sandifer and his squad were used to playing as some players were a little tentative.
Sandifer said he wasn’t surprised to see it.
“For me, I kind of got back in the swing of things quickly,” he said. “I think the boys took a little longer. It was a little slow and unsure the first half, I think from both teams. I thought we played defensively, which is what the goal was today. We knew offense would kind of sputter at times, which it did. Second half, I thought we were much more active off the ball when we were looking to play our forwards or find midfielders and that generated into better attacks for us.”
The last time the Panthers walked off the field, it was after a 2-0 loss to Henry Clay in the KHSAA State Championship. Former DC standout Jacob Boling and his 33 goals also walked off the field after he graduated in May.
Sandifer said they didn’t talk about last season very much because he knows his players think about it.
“We didn’t have to talk about it a whole lot,” he said. “These kids know what we lost and what we return but I think they realize what we lost was a big piece. A guy that did a lot for us, and somebody or more than one person is going to have to step up to fill that activity level that Jacob brought to every game.”
He said the players are a year older and with that comes another year of experience.
Each team had chances during the first half with the closest coming from Daviess County’s Hayden Boswell.
A miscue by the Mustang keeper resulted in the ball at Boswell’s feet but his shot soared slightly and hit off the post.
When the whistle sounded, neither team saw their side of the scoreboard changed as the game would come down to the last 40 minutes.
What started as one of the best games in Kentucky Monday turned into a lopsided win for the Panthers, as goals kept coming in the second half.
Hunter Clark found the back of the net first with 33:08 left in the game but that score became 2-0 when AJ Hicks discord a few minutes later.
The goals kept coming in bunches as Andrew Alexander and Sean Higgs scored back-to-back to make it 4-0 Panthers before Hayden Boswell was able to find the back of the net to give Daviess County a dominant 5-0 win over the 1st Region power.
Declan Armistead, Nick Vincent, Higgs and Clark had assists for DC as Cody Clark and Kylen Clater combined for the clean sheet, with Clark playing the bulk of the game for the Panthers.
Sandifer said he had a simple message for his team at halftime.
“I didn’t think we were anticipating off the ball very well,” he said. “We were waiting. By the time our guy was looking at us, we were starting our run then and we should have already had our run started. We were waiting on balls to get to us instead of stepping to passes and it just wasn’t fluid, it was a lot of standing and going ‘oh, I should have been there already.’ It was first gamer stuff.”
The Panthers will have a couple of days to regroup for their next game, which happens to be a 9th District showdown with Owensboro at home.
Sandifer said they can’t be complacent and need to keep growing.
“We need to build upon this,” he said. “Know what we did well today but realize we have a lot of work to do on both ends of the field. Our communication wasn’t consistent today, that’s got to get better.”
Daviess County 5, McCracken County 0
MCHS (0-1) 0-0–0
DCHS (1-0) 0-5–5
Goals: MC: None; DC: Hunter Clark, AJ Hicks, Andrew Alexander, Sean Higgs, Hayden Boswell
Assists: MC: None; DC: Declan Armistead, Nick Vincent, Sean Higgs, Hunter Clark
