It was a breezy evening filled with sports at Seymour High School, as Jeffersonville came to town to battle the Owls in boys’ tennis and girls’ soccer on Tuesday night.

On the soccer field, Jeffersonville jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first 9 minutes of play after Laela Rudicel and Scarlett McRae scored for the Red Devils.

Layana Cosby scored for Jeffersonville just 11 minutes later, being down big, the Owls had two choices, give up, or continue to fight for a victory.

Seymour’s Katy Roark found the back of the net eight minutes later and Kenzi Henkle added another goal just two minutes after. Jeffersonville added one more score to go into the half with a 4-2 advantage. Cosby scored again in the 46th minute, before Henkle got the ball and scored less than 20 seconds later to make it a 5-3 contest.

A long time then passed before either team could score, as both teams fought hard throughout the contest. It would be a little too late for the Owls, as Roark scored her second goal with 25 seconds remaining in the game. Seymour ran out of time, dropping the matchup 5-4.

Owls Head Coach Greg Musser spoke about the fight and resiliency from the team against Jeffersonville.

“Before the resiliency is the frustration. This is the seventh time in eight games that we have conceded a goal in the first two minutes,” Musser said. “Frustration becomes very evident on the coaches’ sideline with the players. I will give them credit that they battled, but we keep spotting teams 2-3 goals, and we don’t have the firepower to come back from those.”

Seymour had chances throughout the second half, narrowly missing a handful of chances in the final 15 minutes of the contest. The loss put Seymour at 1-7 on the season, currently on a seven-game losing streak. Over that time, the Owls have been outscored 45 to 6 after dominating Salem 11-0 in the opening game.

Coach Musser believes the team must start to come out to play from the beginning.

“They kept battling, scratching, and clawing, unfortunately it takes us getting down and getting slapped in the face a little bit before our teams wants to wake up and play,” Musser said. “We have to get them jacked up early and get them in the mindset, because when we do want to play, we’re a solid team.”

“It’s a lesson we need to learn and one we need to learn quickly, because it’s repeated mistakes and that’s the frustrating part,” Musser said.

Defense has not been a strong suit for the team this season. There is still more than half of the season remaining and plenty of time to turn it around. Musser said it must improve if the team wants to turn the season around.

“Defense, Defense, Defense,” he said. “We’ve conceded more goals in eight games than some of our teams have in entire seasons. As an ex-goalie that hurts my heart, so we have got to go back to the drawing board and figure everything out. We have to clean up our defense if anything else is going to follow through.”

The JV team also grabbed their first win of the season after a 3-2 win over Jeffersonville before the varsity contest. The Owls are back in action next Thursday against another Hoosier Hills Conference opponent in New Albany.

The match begins at 7 p.m.

Varsity

Jeffersonville 5, Seymour 4

Scoring

First half

J-Laela Rudicel (2nd minute)

J- Scarlett McRae (9th minute)

J-Layana Cosby (20th minute)

S- Katy Roark (28th minute)

S-Kenzi Henkle (30th minute)

J-Scarlett McRae (33rd minute)

Second half

J- Layana Cosby (46th minute)

S- Kenzi Henkle (46th minute)

S- Katy Roark (89th minute)

JV

Seymour 3, Jeffersonville 2