For The Tribune
Seymour’s boys soccer team scored two goals in the second half to break open a tight match and defeat Scottsburg 3-0 on Thursday on the Owls’ turf.
Seymour missed several opportunities to score early in the match before Bryan Penegar scored off an assist by Ethan Greene at 17:44 of the first half.
Owls coach Matt Dennis said, “I thought in the first half we were a little bit lackadaisical. I thought we weren’t clean enough in our possessions.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“But in the second half we saw some very good combination play out of the boys. The first 10-15 minutes of the second half we were very good about bringing the second, third and fourth guy into the attack.
“We were getting four with numbers, and we got rewarded with corner kicks that we scored on. It was good to see that in the second half because we didn’t in the first.”
The Owls made it 2-0 when Keegan Sunbury scored off an assist by Daniel Hartman with 34:51 left in the match.
Seymour’s final goal was scored by Payton Reasoner off Greene’s second assist of the match with 11:25 on the clock.
“We’re getting better with our combination play,” Dennis said. “There’s still times I think it could be better, but our combination play is coming along.
“We’re able to get guys in the match to develop, so they’re getting a little bit better as well. Our finishing was lacking today, but aside from that our finishing had gotten better every game. We tested their goalkeeper, at least, today. He had to make saves.”
The Owls had 15 shots in the first half and 28 for the game, while the Warriors only had one shot on goal the entire 80 minutes as Owls’ starting keeper, Elliott Clark, made his only save at 30:50 of the first half. Scottsburg goalkeeper Johannes Krull was credited with 12 saves.
Dennis said he liked the Owls’ aggressiveness at mid-field.
“We didn’t allow them into the match. With the two or three injuries that we have — we took another one today when Alex (Westfall) went down (seven minutes into the match) — we kind of had a makeshift midfield, and it was good to see those guys step up in an unfamiliar role and play a different position.
“Ethan Greene stepped up and played a center mid role. He’s played for me for four years and had never played center mid, and he was able to do that and dictate play in the middle, and help us combine like we know that he can. He knows what we want from our outside mid, so he was able to play those balls like he would want played to him when he is out there.
“It was a good team effort today to get everybody in here.”
Seymour (3-0-1) will face Batesville at 11:30 a.m. Saturday in the Batesville Invite.