Indianapolis Lutheran scored two goals in the first half and added an insurance score in the second half to defeat Trinity Lutheran 3-0 in a boys soccer match on the Cougars’ field Monday night.
The Saints outshot the Cougars 10-1 in the first half and 28-8 for the match.
“The offense just had a little bit of a struggle finding the each-other’s feet tonight,” Trinity coach Todd Jack said. “We did a really good job at winning the ball back on defense, and in the midfield, but then stringing together offensive plays seemed to evade us a little bit more than I would have liked.”
The Saints missed some scoring opportunities early before Elliott Cook scored for a 1-0 lead at 20:08.
Caleb Williams tried to tie the score for the Cougars at 17:20 but his attempt sailed over the net before Kyian Humphrey doubled the visitors’ lead at 14:48 of the first half.
Neither team could score the remainder of the half with goalie Bradyen Stockelman making a nice save for the Cougars late in the half to keep the score 2-0 at the break.
Levi Pottschmidt had a chance to cut the Cougars’ deficit in half with a free kick at 36:41 but his attempt was wide of the net.
Bryce Eastridge added a goal at 17:20 to close the scoring.
The Cougars (0-3) became more aggressive on offense the remainder of the match as Williams had a header at 15:40 that was wide of the goal, Conner Sims’ corner kick was caught by the goalie in front of the net, and Kade Hill had two headers late that came up short of the net.
“It was a very tough, physical game, and the refs were allowing that style of play to establish itself,” Jack said. “They let a lot of things go and I think the boys were a little bit frustrated, and tried to get some shots off, and that kept us from running some of our offense that we wanted to do in the first half, at least.
“In the second half we were able to find a little more spacing, realized what kind of game was in front of us as far as what the officiating was giving us, and we started to play more linked passes to each other, instead of trying to scrum the ball.”
Jack said, “This week we’re going to work on a lot of working out of the back, being comfortable with winning the ball and on defense, and then looking to play the ball up to a specific player rather than just up.”
The Cougars lost 4-2 at Rising Sun Saturday night. Trinity held a 2-1 lead at the half thanks to two goals from Sims.
The girls’ match was cancelled because Rising Sun was unable to field a team.
The Trinity boys and girls will travel to Oldenburg Academy Saturday with the boys’ match set to start at 11 a.m., followed by the girls match.