SEYMOUR
Alyssa Perry scored two goals and had an assist to help the Seymour girls soccer team scored two goals defeat Bedford North Lawrence 4-1 Tuesday night in the opening round of sectional play.
The Owls controlled the ball for a majority of the first 11 minutes of the match before BNL attempted a corner at the 28:40 mark with the ball being knocked away by the Seymour defense.
Perry had control of the ball to the left of the BNL goal when she passed to Lillie Wessel in front of the goal and she made the score 1-0 at 17:28 of the first half.
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The Owls, who beat the Stars 6-1 during the season, had three more shots, plus two corners before Jennifer Ramirez tied the score at 1-1 with 9:41 left in the first half.
Seymour regained the lead on a goal by Aidan Hiester with 3:55 left in the first half and the home team was in front to stay.
“We were going to see what type of team we were,” coach Greg Musser said. “We conceded a goal we shouldn’t have conceded to tie it up 1-1 and I honestly think it was the best thing for us. It kind of woke us up a little bit, and made us realize we were going to have a game on our hands.”
The Owls outshot the Stars 6-1 each half.
Seymour keeper Kate Snook said getting the lead was key for her team.
“The team really gained a lot of momentum with (Hiester’s) goal. It really helped us to push forward and keep high pressure on them," she said. “I’d say we’re all every excited to win and to have a second chance at Floyd or New Albany because we didn’t beat either of them this year, but they were both very close. Hard practice (today) and get ready for Thursday."
Musser said at halftime he encouraged the Owls to play with more focus in the second half, and he was pleased with those results.
“We had to challenge them a little bit at halftime,” he said. “Bedford came out ready to play. Credit that coaching staff for getting them well-organized and energetic to play us.
“I thought the first 40 minutes we lacked a little bit of energy. We had opportunities, we were a little unfortunate.
“We’ve been preaching all year that every opportunity is the important one and unfortunately we lacked some concentration in front of the goal in the first half.”
Perry scored both of the Owls’ goals unassisted in the second half, at 33:25 and 8:44.
“In the second half we played much better," Musser said. "They took the challenge well at halftime and came out and got results. Once we got up by a couple goals where we were controlling that second half we decided to pay attention to getting counter-attacked quickly when we were sending numbers.
“When we got the third goal we were kind of on cruise control and had a little less stress on the girls for the remainder of the half.”
The Owls (9-6-2) will face the winner of Tuesday’s late match between Floyd Central and New Albany at 5 p.m. Thursday. The Owls lost to New Albany 1-0 on a goal with 24 seconds remaining, and tied Floyd Central 0-0 in Hoosier Hills matches during the season.
“We should have another nice battle on our hands come Thursday,” Musser said.