Wildcats soccer team wins the Scotties Classic

Wildcats 6, Scotties 0Last Thursday, Franklin-Simpson started off the Scotties Classic with a victory over the host school, the Glasgow Scotties.

“Coach (Justin) Dyer said before the game that he has never beaten Glasgow, and so we had a pretty good opportunity to change that,” Sam Mylor said. “We had a long time off and had practice with some rest, so we felt pretty prepared.”

The Wildcats got things going early in the first half with Gabe Jones scoring the first goal. Griff Banton scored the “hat trick” by depositing three goals in a row for a 4-0 lead at intermission.

“Somebody had to get this thing started so it was a tap in for a goal but it got everybody going and after that, we got two quick goals,” Jones said. “We want to play our game. We want to run our quick look passes to break down their defense and follow our shots and that’s how we got one of our goals.”

“The goals I scored were kind of easy. My teammates put up shots and I just clapped them back in,” Banton said. “I was able to score off of deflections and rebounds and the net was wide open for me to put the ball there.”

In the second half, Oscar Lopez scored a goal with Banton scoring his fourth goal of the match for the shutout victory.

Ty Barbee had a pair of assists with Kody Alexander, Lopex and Connor Vincent, who had two saves as the goalkeeper, each with an assist.

“We did what we wanted to,” Dyer said. “They had some stretches to control the game, but we got to work on playing a full 80. It was good to able to get some of the younger guys some varsity time and it was promising to see that we could get a little more deeper in our bench with that experience and work them in how we want to.”

Wildcats 5, Cougars 0Early Saturday afternoon, Franklin-Simpson’s defense once again suffocated another opponent for a full 80 minutes as the Wildcats’ victory moved them one step closer in winning their portion of the Scotties Classic.

“We looked to control the ball and use the space to run our opponents as much as possible,” Dyer said. “We are confident in our conditioning level, and we would be able to run for the full 80 minutes in our games. We wanted to limit the opportunities to the other team and overall, we managed to do that.”

Kaden Goodwin and Peytin Martin each scored a pair of goals with Jones adding his second one of the classic. Jones also added an assist with Alexander, Barbee, Lopez and Sam Mylor.

Wildcats 5, Cardinals 0With their victory over Taylor County, Franklin-Simpson won their pool portion of the Scotties Classic late Saturday afternoon.

“Similar to our two other matches, we were able to give our younger players quite a bit of minutes because of how we played,” Dyer said. “Giving them minutes is always good moving forward. I’m pleased with the fight and the play of the team and happy to keep three clean sheets for the tournament.”

Banton scored two goals. Barbee, Lopez and Martin each scored a goal. Lopez and Martin each added an assist along with Alexander, Jones and Trebor Kindred.

The Wildcats host the Warren Central Dragons at the F-S Soccer and Softball Complex in the Section 2 championship match of the Class 2-A Tournament on Wednesday night at 6 p.m.

The winner of the match will represent Section 2 in the Elite Eight round of the Class 2-A State Tournament.