Daviess County’s perfect season continued Thursday night, as they earned their fourth shutout in five games en route to a 3-0 home victory over Apollo.
The Panthers (5-0, 3-0 9th District) remain atop the district standings with wins against each opponent, while the Eagles (22-4, 1-2) are in third place.
It was senior Jacob Boling who yet again led the Panthers to victory, this time notching two goals in the contest. Boling was able to finally open the scoring with just over 8 minutes to play in the first half, converting from the top of the box on an assist from Hunter Clark.
Boling’s second goal came early in the second half, scoring from nearly the exact same spot after a big offensive push after the break.
“Coach gave us a great talk at halftime which helped us to unlock the defense,” Boling said. “At the beginning of the game, we were really trying to force the issue with lots of long passes over the top, but after halftime the midfielders started to make some key passes and we played much better as a team.”
Prior to Boling’s two goals, the tightly contested game was largely a defensive battle that left Apollo with the first few real chances at a goal. On the first corner kick, Apollo’s Yo Shi Ya launched a header toward the goal, but it was headed off the line at the last second by a Daviess County defender and cleared to safety.
Apollo head coach Ryan Poirier felt the game was closer than the final scoreline and took away positives despite the loss.
“We had some great chances tonight,” Poirier said. “At times, we had just what we wanted. It wasn’t that we played poorly, we just gave up what I would call fixable goals. Some defensive miscues sunk us, but I’m proud of the guys and we are definitely capable of flipping the script if we keep working hard.”
The Panthers were able to tack on an insurance goal with 32:56 to play by way of Hunter Clark’s second assist, which set up an easy tap-in for Neh Reh from a few feet out.
Daviess County coach Doug Sandifer was proud of his team’s response in the second half, noting a young nucleus that has come a long way in a short amount of time so far this season.
“We have a lot of young players getting minutes that are being thrown into the mix,” Sandifer said. “They’re coming along quickly and I’m really happy with the difference they are making.
Both Daviess County and Apollo will be in action this weekend as they travel to Bowling Green for the annual Purples Classic.
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2019 soccer coverage is presented by Worth Insurance Group.
