Owensboro had no problem thrashing Muhlenberg County 10-0 on their way to a spot in the 3rd Region Championship. Denis Juma and Emmanuel Lichi both had hat tricks to lead the offensive threat for the Red Devils.
OHS immediately pressed high offensive pressure and scored in the first 3 minutes. After a corner was served in, Emmanuel Lichi ran onto a loose ball and passed it into the net for the first goal.
The Red Devils showed no mercy for the remainder of the match with their aggressive offense as Muhlenberg could not contain them. The offense outshot Muhlenberg 15 shots to five. OHS head coach Ryan Haley was pleased with the offensive performance throughout the match.
“It was a good game all around and I liked the way we moved the ball,” he said. “They gave us a little time so we were able to move the ball more effectively. We played quick with one touch passes, we dropped and played the way we faced as well. It was a good game for us.”
Lichi completed his hat trick 15 minutes into the match when Peter Saang played a cross across the box. Lichi lept and scored a header from just inside the top of the box to make the score 3-0.
OHS dealt with a few runs behind their back line by Muhlenberg, but otherwise the defense were on top of things and supported the offense while they ran up the score to 6-0 by halftime.
Juma completed his hat trick to open the scoring in the second half from a back heel assist from Lichi to make the score 7-0. Following a goal from Jack Sigler, Juma got his fourth and final goal after scoring from a pass from 9th District Co-Player of the Year Sang Thang.
Robert Amsini scored the final goal with a shot put directly off the post into the top left corner. The scoresheet for the Panthers included Juma with four goals and one assist, Lichi with three goals and two assists, Saang with one goal and one assist, Sigler with one goal and one assist and Amsini with one goal. Thang had two assists, Byaruhanga Mutabazi had an assist and Kaden Youngman had an assist as well.
Haley said that the team will need to recreate what they did in this match in the championship against Daviess County, as Panthers goalkeeper Connor Johnson will be tough to score on.
“County’s a good team and we’ve seen them three times, but we have yet to score on them,” he said. “Their goalie is phenomenal. When we get our shots, if we can put them in the corners we’ll be alright, but if we put them anywhere central he’s going to save everything. He might still save something in the corner.”
The 3rd Region Boys’ Championship will be at 7 p.m. on October 12 at Shifley Park.
