In a span of only 11 minutes in the opening half, the Daviess County boys soccer team scored three goals against Apollo, and it proved to be more than enough in a 5-0 win Thursday night.
The Panthers (7-0, 3-0 District 9), took sole possession of first place in the district while maintaining a perfect record and recording the first shutout of the year. The Eagles (4-3-1, 2-1 District 9) lost their first home game of the season.
All five goals were scored in a first half that Daviess County head coach Doug Sandifer said was probably the most proficient of the season.
“I thought we played really well in the first half,” he said. “It may have been the best half we’ve played this year as a collective group — nice runs off the ball, nice final passes, following up on shots to get a couple of tap ins.”
Hunter Clark got things rolling 10 minutes in when he punched in a deflection off a shot by Max Miller. Two minutes later, Clark sent a corner kick into the box, where Brian Winkler turned and fired a shot into the net for his first goal of the night.
Another two minutes later, Miller pushed the ball up the middle of the field and found Declan Sandifer up the left side. Sandifer beat his defender and scored from 15 yards out. Winkler then got on the board again when he got the ball 10 yards out and maneuvered around a pair of defenders for his second goal.
That makes 14 goals on the year for Winkler — an average of two per game.
“He’s hard to handle,” Sandifer said of Winkler. “He’s so strong on the ball. He can find his own shot, but he can also break down a defender or two to open up other people, and he’s finding those guys as well. “
The final score came with 6 minutes to play before halftime, when Michael Haynes was able to get one just over the goal line for his first score of the year.
Apollo head coach Ryan Poirier said his team was not prepared when they stepped on the field, and they didn’t have an answer for the aggressive play by the Panthers.
“We didn’t come ready to play that first half,” he said. “There were a lot of guys not being very diligent on defense, kind of either getting lazy or losing focus. A lot of (the Panthers’) goals were from our guys leaving their marks. Their guy would make a run, and we were two or three steps late. I think it was a lack of focus.”
He was pleased with the final 40 minutes of play, though by then it was too late, and the teams played a scoreless frame.
“The second half we woke up,” Poirier said. “We had some great opportunities. I wish that team would have showed up in the first half. I think this game would have been a little different. We might not have won, but 5-0 in the first half is not us. That’s just us not putting forth the effort.”
On the other end, Sandifer had opposite feelings for his team. After a dominate showing early, he said the late performance fell flat.
“The second half, I didn’t feel like we came back out to play,” Sandifer said. “We played slow. We probably had the score on our mind the whole time. That’s disappointing. I wanted us to put at least 60 minutes together, but we were able to get everybody to play and get everybody some time.”
The Panthers have a quick turnaround, as they play again today at 7:30 p.m. against John Hardin in the Bowling Green Classic. They’ll also play Saturday against Lafayette and Mercer County in the tournament.
He said it will give the team a chance to see how they can do against unfamiliar competition, and allows the Panthers to clean up some of their gameplay.
“We want to put our foot on the gas pedal and put the other team on their heels,” he said. “We had Apollo kind of reeling, and we were able to put some shots in and probably put the game out of reach in the first half. We want to try to maintain that level. If we can do that, we’re going to be tougher to beat. That first half was as close to what we want to do right now as we can be.”
After their match scheduled for Saturday was cancelled, Poirier and the Eagles have a week off before an important home rematch against Owensboro at 7 p.m. Thursday. When the teams met Aug. 16, Apollo edged out the Red Devils for a 1-0 win.
Owensboro has since gone 4-1, scoring 20 total goals, while Apollo has gone 3-2-1 with only 11 goals. Poirier said he’s hoping a poor outing Thursday will get the team back on track and ready to come out stronger.
“Having this loss is going to sting,” he said. “Guys aren’t going to be too happy with it. I think that will be motivation to come out and show we’re better than that and put forth a very good effort against Owensboro.”
