SEYMOUR
The Columbus North girls soccer team used the strong right leg of Jenna Lang and a stingy defense to blank Seymour girls 4-0 Saturday afternoon on the Owls’ turf.
Lang, a sophomore, scored her first goal at 24:18, and added a score at 10:40 to give the Bull Dogs a 2-0 lead at the half.
Lang reached her hat trick at 37:46 of the second half, and the Dogs received an insurance goal from Caroline Hollencamp at 28:19 to even their record at 1-1.
Owls Coach Greg Musser said you have to play strong at both ends of the field all times when facing a team like North.
“Obviously, it was a high caliber team we came up against today,” he said. “Our girls got a lesson in what it’s like to get pressure every single time we were about to get on a ball. That is something we’re trying to instill in our own team as well.
“We’ve done a good job of that at times, and there are other times where we take one or two of those opportunities off, and you let a special player like Jenna Lang get loose because you took a play off and something bad is going to happen.”
The Owls were held to three shots on the afternoon, by Elizabeth Hartman at 28:25 and Mia Schrader at 27:00 of the first half, and by Lillie Wessel with 7:18 remaining in the game.
Musser said he is asking a lot from his team.
“It’s tough. We’re asking a lot of the girls the way we want to play. It’s high energy, its high paced, a high defensive work rate. We’re going to get there,” he said. “We got a good lesson from Columbus North on what it’s like to have that happen every single time.”
Musser said Saturday’s game was a big teaching moment for his girls.
“There are definitely some things to work on, and we told them after the games we won, too,” Musser said. “There were definitely some positives here, too. One of the things I love is there is no quitting in our team. They were going hard, pressuring the ball and playing hard to the end. Those are things we can build off of.”
He said the team needs to be sharper with its passes.
“Our passing was a little loose at times,” he said. “Instead of trying to build out through the middle when we were on the offensive side, I think tried to play too many one-touch passes. I think our communication was pretty good.”
Facing North might be the toughest for the Owls this season. However, with a ramped up schedule this season, it’s going to be tough going forward.
“They are going to be one of the top-tier teams on our schedule,” he said. “There are really no days off any more. We ‘beefed’ up our schedule for that purpose. We know we have a more talented team these next couple years and we can go run at the big girls a little bit. I think it’s going to be good for us going into the tournament.”
The Owls (2-1) will travel to Scottsburg Thursday night.
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Columbus North 4, Seymour 0
Shots: SHS 3, CN 15
Records: SHS 2-1, CN 1-1
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