An industrious performance at the top of the formation led Seymour’s boys soccer team to a convincing 4-1 victory over visiting Whiteland on Saturday.

Senior forward Myles Chandler was involved in all four Owl goals, scoring twice, assisting once and drawing the foul that led to Bartolome Sebastian’s goal on a penalty.

The goals were Chandler’s third and fourth of the season as Seymour improved to 3-2.

“That’s what we’ve expected out of Myles all year,” Seymour head coach Matt Dennis said. “It’s good to see him start to break free a little bit. In the first half we (coaches) were on him a lot about his defense. In the second half his defense was excellent. Because of that, he was winning the ball and getting the ball in better positions and being more dangerous as he went forward. He’s a guy that can be a game changer for us.”

Chandler provided Seymour’s first goal 16 minutes in when a cross from the right side by Brandon Martinez was forwarded along by Dominic Dennis near the top of Whiteland’s 18-yard box. The ball found an unmarked Chandler, who knocked it into the net.

Two minutes later, Chandler took the opposite role, finding Marckenson Paul who punched the ball home to give Seymour a 2-0 lead.

“The first two goals came out of playing through the 9 (center forward), which is something we work on all the time,” Dennis said. “It was excellent. Dominic is the 9 and assists Myles. Then we go through our rotations and Myles is the 9 and he assists on the second goal. It was good to see us do things in training session that appeared in the match.”

Just after the second half started, Chandler won the ball and beat Whiteland defender Jackson Crawford as the two raced into Whiteland’s box. A step behind and out of options, Crawford took Chandler down, handing a penalty-kick opportunity to Seymour.

Sebastian calmly went left with his penalty shot while Whiteland goalie Alex Pitts dove right, giving the Owls a commanding 3-0 advantage.

Good combination play on the right side with Martinez resulted in Chandler’s second goal, a toe-punched shot past Pitts that closed out the Owls’ scoring with 25 minutes remaining.

“I thought (my effort) today definitely stood out more than other games,” Chandler said. “I was a little mad at my efforts in other games. I thought I could give more and today I wanted to show that. Our attacking is a lot better than I thought it would be, which I’m happy about. We’ve got guys that want to run after the ball and press. We want to run people over and put the goal in.”

Whiteland (0-4-1) applied greatest pressure on Seymour’s goal during the final 20 minutes of the game. The Warriors’ lone score came with 12 minutes left when Austin Cooper finished an entry pass from Mateo Nunez-Alverez.

During the final four minutes, Whiteland was forced play with 10 men on the field after Crawford was shown his second yellow card.

Saturday’s win gave Seymour two victories in last week’s three matches. The Owls face another three matches in the coming week, two of which are Hoosier Hills Conference contests (at Jeffersonville on Tuesday and at Columbus East on Thursday).

Dennis believes his side is ready for the road ahead.

“We’re above .500 headed into conference, which we haven’t been in a long time,” Dennis said. “We feel pretty confident right now. Jeffersonville is going to be a tough test. East is going to be a tough test. That’s the reason that we play such a tough schedule in the beginning, with two Bloomington schools and Jasper, and Whiteland, who gives us fits every year it seems. We play these tough teams early so that when we head into the HHC schedule, we are battle tested. We know what we are. We’ve played three or four different unique styles of play, so no matter what somebody does, we feel like we can attack it.”

Varsity

Seymour 4, Whiteland 1

Scoring

First half

S-Myles Chandler (Dominic Dennis), 23:59

S-Marckenson Paul (Chandler), 21:37

Second half

S-Bartolome Sebastian (penalty), 37:38

S-Chandler (Brandon Martinez), 25:02

W-Austin Cooper (Mateo Nunez-Alverez), 12:27

Statistics

Shots: Whiteland 12, Seymour 8

Saves: Whiteland 4, Seymour 4

Fouls: Whiteland 7, Seymour 19

Corners: Whiteland 8, Seymour 4

Varsity record: 3-2-0

Junior Varsity

Whiteland 2, Seymour 1

Scoring

First half

S-Whiteland own goal, 33:01

W-Ahmed Amin, 18:59

W-Awande Memani, :16

JV record: 1-2-1