A pair of early goals was all it took, but the Daviess County boys’ soccer team went on to rout Owensboro at home Thursday for a 9-0 district win.
Both coaches expected a fairly even matchup going into the game, but after Jacob Boling and Max Miller scored back-to-back goals only 7 minutes in for the Panthers (12-0-1, 5-0 District 9), the Red Devils (7-3-1, 2-3) got deflated.
“Tonight I think things just snowballed a little bit,” said DCHS head coach Doug Sandifer. “We got up early, and they probably lost some confidence. I don’t want to take anything away from us. We played well.”
OHS head coach Ryan Haley said that was exactly it — Owensboro lost their confidence.
“We got down two goals and our team quit,” he said. “They were two unfortunate goals that shouldn’t have happened, just little mistakes. With a team as good as they are, you can’t really make mistakes.”
The Panthers led a strong attack but weren’t able to score again until Hunter Clark curved one in directly off a corner kick for a 3-0 lead that held until halftime. The second half was nearly totally controlled by Daviess County, but Haley said the game had long been over.
“You’ve got to give it up to Daviess County,” he said. “They’re very consistent. They move the ball well. They beat up on us after the first 3 minutes. It was their game, and they never looked back.”
Brian Winkler started a flurry of scoring only 6 minutes into the second half when he got his first goal on a penalty kick. Miller, Boling and Clark all added their second goals within 10 minutes for a 7-0 lead and still 25 minutes to play.
Haley said he decided to put his subs in around that time, and he was impressed with their effort for the rest of the game.
“I think they really worked hard — hard enough to maybe even earn a start in the next game,” he said.
DCHS got a goal by Mike Haynes in the 67th minute, and Winkler closed out the scoring by taking the ball from midfield, dribbling past a handful of defenders for his second score.
Sandifer said the dominating success of the Panthers is because of a full team effort. While it’s easy to credit the offense by looking at the scoreboard, he said it’s goes deeper than that.
“We’re playing well right now as a team,” he said. “Everybody’s contributing. Certain guys are scoring, but there’s so much more going on from guys in our back line. A lot of our attacks start from the first ball out of the back and dictates where we go from there. Those guys in the back deserve a lot of credit.”
Picking up assists for the Panthers were Miller, Clark, Boling (2), Declan Sandifer and Tanner Anderson. Goalkeepers Kaya Suzer and Lennart Merkel combined for three saves.
For Owensboro, keeper Radley Worth had six saves. Haley said he was proud Worth kept fighting throughout the game. While he’s disappointed with the result, Haley said the Devils still have potential.
“This isn’t anything that’s going to stop what we’re doing,” he said. “We’ve been playing very well. We’re better than this, and we’ll learn from it.”
Owensboro now moves on to play Logan County at home at 7 p.m. Saturday. The Panthers play a pair of contests Saturday in their own Panther Classic. They start the day at 10 a.m. against Oldham County, and finish at 6:30 p.m. against Simon Kenton.
“I expect both games to be very challenging for us, and we want that,” Sandifer said. “This group wants to be pushed, so I’m hoping that will happen this weekend.”
