Trinity Lutheran’s boys soccer team didn’t get to scrimmage Austin in the Scottsburg Jamboree on Aug. 13, but Cougars Coach Todd Jack scouted the Eagles and put together a game plan for Tuesday’s match on the Trinity field.

The Cougars executed Jack’s game plan to near perfection during Tuesday’s home match against the Eagles as Levi Pottschmidt scored Trinity’s first three goals to help his team to an 8-0 win.

“That’s the idea, dominate from the start,” Jack said. “These boys knew the side they were going up against, and this is a game that was at hand for us to take if they wanted to take it, but there was still a lot of work to be done. It was not just a ‘gimme game’ where they were going to lay over and hand it to us. They were still going to put up a good fight, and they did.”

Trinity, which had 28 shots in the first half and 18 shots in the second half, began attacking the net from the start.

Pottschmidt’s first shot at 38:40 didn’t go in, but his next attempt at 37:41 was good, and he added goals at 30:16 and 23:24 on a rebound, and the Cougars were in complete control.

Austin didn’t have a shot attempt at the goal until a corner kick at 17:05 of the first half. The Eagles attempted a goal at 13:45 when goalie Peyton Pollert made his second save of the game.

Pottschmidt said this was his first hat trick at Trinity.

“Our plan was to try and keep possession as long as we could,” he said. “I thought we did a good job of playing the through balls and over-the-top balls. We got a lot of runs on goal and we put a lot of them away.”

He said after he scored his first goal he felt confident the Cougars could win. “That was my hope. After I scored that first one I think I got a lot of confidence.”

Pottschmidt had one goal against Rising Sun Saturday and leads the team with four goals for the season.

Jack said he was glad to see Pottschmidt start out strong, and was happy to see Andrew Bell score.

“That (Pottschmidt attacking) was something we were really hoping to see in this game. We knew this was a type of game that a player like Levi Pottschmidt could really open the door for his scoring this season, and really start to see what it looks like to put that ball in the back of the net, so it was no surprise that he knocked three in right away,” Jack said. “Andrew Bell must have had 14 shots on goal before he finally put one in the back of the net. He was just on it the whole night. It’s good to see a lot of success from a lot of different individuals, and then overall just see the team have success together.”

John Harris and Bell added goals in the final 19 minutes of the first half.

Kade Gillaspy, Trenton Burton and Levi Curry scored goals in the second half. Andrew Lemming had two assists and Connor Nichols and Adam Everroad each had one assist.

Pollert started in goal for the Cougars and had two saves in the first half and two more saves in the second half before Harris attended goal in the closing minutes and had one save.

Austin goalie Luke Brush had 25 saves.

Jack said, “It was good to right the ship (following a loss at Indianapolis Lutheran Monday night). We have a couple practices now were we can go back to the drawing board and recoup and recover and play Oldenburg Saturday.”

The Cougars, 1-2-1, will host Oldenburg Academy on Saturday with the girls playing at 1 p.m. and the boys battling at 3 p.m.

Pottschmidt said, “We’ve got to work on possession. We’ve just got a lot of feet-to-feet action, and just keep the ball on the ground and get short passes in. Our build-up play needs to be a lot better than it is. The defense did a pretty good job. They kept a clean sheet so that speaks for itself.”