Seymour’s girls soccer team celebrated senior night Thursday with a 1-0 win against Bedford North Lawrence in a Hoosier Hills Conference match at the Seymour soccer field.
Maddie Roark scored the Owls’ goal off an assist from Bailey Lykins at 15:54 of the first half.
Seymour coach Greg Musser said the scoring play was good execution on the part of both players.
“We got one of them and put it home today,” he said. “Maddie did a nice job of picking her head up. Bailey Lykins plays physical in the middle. We’ve been talking that we need to get a little more physical in the middle, and that created our goal tonight.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“They have a really aggressive goalie, and she makes some great plays in there, but Maddie picking her head up, saw the goalie was out and was able to put one home for us.”
The Bedford North Lawrence keeper came outside the 18-yard box, and Roark easily put the ball in the net to help the Owls even their HHC record at 2-2.
Prior to the varsity match, the six seniors — Roark, Taylor Heckman, Taylor Bringle, Skyla Bowling, Bailey Lewis and Abi Beed — and their parents were introduced.
“Our seniors, every year they mean everything to us,” Musser said. “They put in all the time, the hard work. They’re putting in all that time in the summer. We have 11 freshmen and nine sophomores on this team.
“Naturally they’re going to look to the upperclassmen and I think our upperclassmen have done a nice job this year of not letting little things get them down, just keep playing, battling through, and that’s good to see.”
The Owls outshot the Stars 11-8, and Seymour goalkeeper Aidan Hiester had eight saves.
“We’ve been playing really good defense all year,” Musser said. “The worst game we’ve lost is by two goals to an extremely talented Batesville team. Everything else has been a one-goal game that we’ve lost. So our defense has been playing lights out right now.
“We had a couple unlucky goals in the last couple games. It just happens in the game of soccer but our defense is an anchor for us right now, providing us with a little bit of stability to get our chances.”
Musser said he liked the way the team controlled play.
“I thought there were moments where we still a little panicked in the midfield and up top, but when we settled down and passed the ball around we definitely controlled the play,” he said. ” I didn’t feel too threatened. The defense just played really well.
“I don’t think it was our best technical game as far as touches, but what we’ve noticed about our team is they battle from start to finish. They do not take a play off, they do not let anything get them down.”
Seymour (8-3-1) will play host to Salem at 10 a.m. Saturday.