Early offense from Daviess County sealed Apollo’s fate, as the Panthers secured the 9th District Championship for the eighth straight season with a 10-0 win.
It took Daviess County two minutes to open up scoring in the match, as junior Hayden Boswell scored to give them an early 1-0 lead.
The Panthers kept applying the pressure, scoring less than a minute later thanks to a goal from junior Sean Higgs to make it a 2-0 game.
Senior Tanner Anderson got in on the action offensively in the 11th minute to expand their lead. He scored the next two goals for Daviess County in the 26th and 30th minute for a hat trick and sent them into the second half owning a 5-0 lead.
Despite owning a solid lead, the Panthers didn’t let up in the second half, coming out with a frenzy of goals.
Junior Ahmed Abdullahi opened the flood gates in the 44th minute, pressuring defensively to earn the ball and score to make it 6-0.
Sean Higgs scored less than a minute later to make it a 7-0 game. Higgs then had a penalty kick that was saved, but cleaned it up on the rebound to earn the hat trick and give Daviess County an 8-0 lead in the 49th minute.
Sophomore Sam Glover made it 9-0 in the 62nd minute, before junior Davian Clark bent one in on the right side of the net to end the game at 10-0 with three minutes to spare.
The Panthers were able to come out and put opponents away early this week, using an aggressive offensive approach that they intend to continue to capitalize on.
“We came into this week wanting our guys to play aggressively and fast from the start,” Sandifer said. “In both games this week we did that and I hope they can see that when we do that, what kind of results we can get if we set the tone of the game. [We] just played well overall.”
Higgs and Anderson both chipped in with hat tricks on the day, to no surprise for Sandifer. He’s been pleased with the duo’s consistency offensively along with the depth the team has as a whole.
Being a part of such a dominant run in Panthers program history is something special to Higgs, especially knowing how much he’s contributed to it.
“It’s cool,” Higgs said. “It’s even better knowing that you’re contributing a lot and hopefully there’s more to come.”
Sandifer said that Daviess County will be looking to fine tune things in practice as they prepare for region play next week.
“Just keep trying to kind of get little things a little closer to perfection,” Sandifer said. “That’s never going to be achieved, but the closer we can get on certain things we like to do the better. We are what we are and we’re not going to change what we are, we just need to get better in certain areas going into next week.”
With the season nearing its end, Anderson said that the team has to be locked in and play their game from the opening whistle every game in order to keep their year going.
“Honestly, [we just have to] stick to our gameplan,” Anderson said. “Going into every game knowing that this is win or go home now in region, we gotta come out in the first five and the last five of the half and keep that same energy and momentum and just have the confidence to play well together as a group.”
The Panthers and Apollo will figure out who their future opponents in region play are after the draw this weekend.
9th District Boys Soccer Team
Tanner Anderson, Daviess County
Elbert Moo, Apollo
Austin Martin, Owensboro Catholic
Sang Thang, Owensboro
Hayden Boswell, Daviess County
Lance Dickens, Owensboro Catholic
Peter Saang, Owensboro
Nate Bailey, Daviess County
Sean Higgs, Daviess County
Ko Htoo, Apollo
Houston Collins, Apollo
Jacob O’Bryan, Owensboro
Dax Sandifer, Daviess County
Harrison Bowman, Apollo
Carson Thomas (9th District Player of the Year)
