The Lady Zizzers took on the Mountain Home, AR Lady Bombers on Monday night in their opening game of the season. West Plains wasted little time in getting on the scoreboard. At about the 8 minute mark of the first half, Lady Zizzer Sophomore, Beth Kittle, dribbled into the left side of the 18 yard box, cut to her right and took a shot to the keeper’s right for a goal just as she was hit by a Mountain Home defender who was trying to block the shot.
The lead was short lived as Mountain Home’s Sydney Thomas broke through the Zizzer defense and slipped one past Lady Zizzer Keeper Jamie Brassfield, to tie the game at about the 15 minute mark.
Brassfield would make several nice diving saves and came out and smothered a few other balls as Mountain Home attacked early.
After the first 20-25 minutes the Lady Zizzers began to settle in a little bit and started to generate more pressure on Mountain Home’s defense. Despite creating some opportunities, the Lady Zizzers didn’t find the back of the net.
A bad Zizzer clearance and a little luck gave the bombers a 2-1 advantage. With about 10 minutes left in the first half, a West Plains clearance from the corner went right to Sydney Thomas in the middle of the field. After taking a touch to settle the ball, the Thomas floated a high ball in on goal from about 40 yards out. The ball went just over the outstreched hands of Lady Zizzer Keeper Jamie Brassfield and just under the crossbar.
The young West Plains team was little hesitant to shoot at times when opportunities presented themselves. This helped keep the game at 2-1 at halftime. The girls haven’t quite developed the aggressive attacking instinct and confidence level in their shooting abilities to capitalize on their chances just yet. We will be working on that and hope to see some improvement as the season progresses.
About midway through the second half, West Plains wase called for tripping the Bombers #1 just outside the 18 yard box on the right side of the field. Megan Powell put the freekick between the moving Lady Zizzer wall and the near post for a 3-1 lead. West Plains had a few more scoring opportunities, but couldn’t cut the Mountain Home lead.
It was definitely a game where we learned some things. We had several players getting their first taste of High School Soccer and experimented with people in different places. It was nice to play against somebody other than ourselves so we can really see where we can make improvements and what we are doing well. Not a bad game considering it was our first of the season and Mountain Home’s tenth of the year. The Lady Bombers improved to 4-6-0 and were coming off a 2nd Place finish at the Harrison, AR Tournament this past weekend. The Lady Zizzers drop to 0-1-0 on the season. West Plains will open Ozark Conference play tomorrow as they travel to Springfield to take on the Parkview Lady Vikings. The Varsity will play first at 4:00pm with the JV game to follow.
It was nice to see a lot of the Boys Soccer Team out in the stands tonight, loudly cheering the girls on. Thanks for the support guys.
Good work ladies!
