Sikeston girls soccer team begin season with loss to Jackson

sports@standard-democrat.com

SIKESTON -- Despite losing only three seniors to graduation last year the Sikeston Lady Bulldogs find themselves a young squad that will see plenty of underclassmen stepping into key roles during the 2014 season.

Tasked with the challenge of bringing the Lady Bulldogs back above the .500 mark this season is first-year head coach Gabe Dement.

"We're really young this year," Dement said. "We only have one senior, but we do have a lot of talent in the freshman and sophomore classes. It's going to be a matter of developing that talent. Those freshman and sophomores haven't really played together ever. Obviously you have some new girls out there."

After serving under former Sikeston head coach Doyle Noe, Dement took over the boy's program late in the boy's soccer season and will continue to helm both teams.

Sikeston's girls' team is coming off a 9-13-2 campaign in which their season came to an end with a 3-2 loss to Cape Central in the opening round of the Class 2, District 1 Tournament.

Along with their former head coach the Lady Bulldogs lost three starter seniors from last year's squad in Madison Chaney, Katherine Inman and Monica Carter.

Chaney will undoubtedly be the biggest loss, following a season where she put up a team-high 19 goals and was selected first-team all-conference and all-district. Inman, who served as a defender, was selected as an honorable mention to the all-conference team her senior year while Carter was selected honorable mention, all-district.

Returning, however, is sophomore Torrie Helms. Helms finished a brilliant freshman year with 13 goals and 12 assists to earn first-team all-conference and all-district selections.

"Madison is the type of girl that is hard to replace, just her leadership and her heart," Dement said. "I feel like this year's team can make up for that. Freshman Laryssa McClellan, I expect big things out of her at forward this year. She's very fast and aggressive.

"Obviously Tori, I expect her to be one of the better players in the area again this year."

McClellan will be one of many freshman pushed up into starting roles. Others include midfielder Grace Hamra and center-mid Kayla Curry.

Another position you'll likely see a freshman all season is in net. With senior Annie Ramey electing not to return for her final season the Lady Bulldogs are left to replace last year's primary keeper.

Dement expects freshmen Madeline Witt and Kayla Graham to see time in goal.

"We have two freshman goalies that have never played it so we'll just see who's better that day," Dement said. "Neither one of them have played much goalie at all. Coach (Paige) Silverthorn has really been working with them hard with the goalies trying to get them use to it."

With the loss of Ramey, the Lady Bulldogs' only senior this season is defender Abbey Jones. The rest of the varsity team consist of six juniors, five sophomores and six freshmen.

Jones will be one of three captains on this year's team along with Helms and sophomore defender Ashley Ensor.

In their first game of the season on Monday Sikeston saw what a mixed blessing young talent can be. After playing visiting Jackson to a draw in the first half the Lady Bulldogs surrendered four unanswered goals in a 5-1 loss.

After a scoreless first 13 minutes of the second half the Lady Indians went ahead for good on a goal by senior Hailey Mouser.

Junior Rachel Crites followed up three minutes later on a long shot from outside of the box that snuck in low, past the keeper to put her team ahead 3-1 with 24:23 to play.

Megan Hawk sealed the game for Jackson by netting her second goal of the night with 10:56 to play before Crites scored her second with three minutes remaining to make up the final.

"In the second half we hesitated a little bit and kind of backed down and let them dictate everything as opposed to the first half," Dement said. "(There was) just lack of communication. Certain girls doing the job of somebody else. For example, an outside defender doing a center defender's job because the center defender was out of position, which happens sometimes in game.

"It felt like certain girls were a little out of position and that's going to come with time as will spacing."

Hawk's first goal put the Lady Indians on top 14 minutes into the game and it was the play of Hamra, on of four starting freshmen Monday, that knotted things up for Sikeston soon after.

With 20:17 left in the first half Hamra sent a long shot from the right side into and past the right crossbar to knot things up.

"She saw the ball bouncing and was about 35 yards out," Dement said. "She saw the keeper was out and said, 'Hey, I got the wind behind me. Might as well take a chance.'

"She put a great left-footed volley on it and it went in the upper right corner. I don't think the keeper was quite expecting it, but it was beautiful."

Dement added he was pleased with how his girls' frustrated Jackson most of the first half.

"In the first half Jackson would possess on us for a little bit, but we would close one of their passes and get the ball back," Dement said. "When that happened that kind of frustrated them in the first half and they weren't able to create as many chances as they hoped for."

Sikeston (0-1) will host Harrisburg, Ill., Wednesday with junior varsity action starting at 5 p.m.