The Owensboro Catholic Lady Aces had a rough start to the 2020 season, as they were outscored 18-2 during their first two losses against Indiana schools. But since then, Catholic has been on a tear.
After Tuesday’s 10-0 win over 9th District foe Apollo, the Lady Aces are 3-0 in their last three games and have outscored opponents 29-1 in those contests.
Catholic coach Andy Hines said his team learned a lot during those early losses.
“It definitely taught us to be a little more aggressive,” he said. “They were winning everything the first game, of course they were, they were nine games in. Winning every ball and pressuring us, that taught us we’ve got to be a little more aggressive, more physical. We worked on that. We worked on pressuring and getting to the ball a little quicker and I think we did a pretty good job of that tonight.”
The Lady Aces scored early and often as they led 3-0 after the first 10:00 of the game. When the halftime whistle sounded, Catholic held a 9-0 lead — a goal away from ending the game early.
After some back-and-forth in the second, the game eventually ended to put the Aces at 1-0 in the district and 3-2 overall, while the E-gals fell to 1-4 overall and 0-3 in the district.
Catholic has had more than 10 players score goals this season and with Hines being in his first year with the program, he wasn’t sure of what to expect.
“That’s good because I didn’t know that was going to happen,” he said of their offensive balace. “They’re not selfish players, they’re looking for the passes. They’re looking to share the ball.”
But one area Hines was focused on was the technical side of the game and with that, the Aces have shined.
“I like the technical, I like the possession-style soccer,” he said. “We’ve been working specifically not so much on the technical, we did that for two months during COVID. We’ve really worked on building up through the middle. Building up through the attacking mid, building up from the defensive mid.”
Apollo plays at McLean County today while Catholic heads to Ohio County.
The Lady Aces schedule gets tougher now as Marshall County, Greenwood, Henderson County, Daviess County, Owensboro and McCracken County are up in the next couple of weeks.
“We have a tough stretch so I guess that’s going to see how we’re made,” Hines said.
Owensboro Catholic 10, Apollo 0
OCHS (3-2) 9 1–10
AHS (1-4) 0 0–0
OCHS: Mallary Bailey (2 goals), Ella Claire Goerz (1 goal, 2 assists), Elizabeth Hayden (assist), Madeline Hayden (3 goals, 2 assists), Ashton Logsdon (1 goal, 2 assists), Katie Riney (assist), Rachel Traylor (goal), Jahaira Ward (assist), Elle Brey (assist), Annie Helwig (goal), Ginny Young (goal)
