MIDDLEFIELD–Five different Cardinal players scored in the Huskies’ 6-0 win over Lawrence School at Richard A. Moss Field on Wednesday.
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| Brandon Wicks scored Cardinal's first goal |
Brandon Wicks, Ian Mast and John Anderson all found the net and the Huskies were credited with an own goal as they built a 4-0 halftime lead. Erin Ross and Trent Mast scored in the second half to lead the Huskies to their first win of the season.
“We’ve got some things to work on,” said Cardinal coach Dale Holcomb. “There were some things I’m not pleased with but overall it was a good performance.”
Holcomb had no issue with the Huskies’ aggressive first half play that saw Ian Mast and Wicks combine for nine direct shots on goal. Mast had two shots and Wicks had one in the first four minutes of the game.
Ian Mast set up Cardinal’s first goal when he drilled a shot from right to left that was blocked by the Lawrence School goalie. Wicks fielded the rebound and fired the ball into the left corner of the net.
Wicks nearly made it 2-0 just a few minutes later but his chip shot cleared the crossbar.
“Wicks has got to work on keeping the ball down,” Holcomb said. “We’ll work on that with him.”
A Lawrence School miscue resulted in an own goal with just over 10 minutes left in the first half. A minute later Ian Mast converted a penalty kick to make it 3-0.
With 1:41 left in the half, John Anderson fired a shot that deflected off the keeper and into the net to make it 4-0. Anderson almost made it 5-0 with a laser shot off the post 17 seconds later.
Cardinal spread things out in the second half but Ross and Trent Mast still found a way to increase the Husky lead.
“I told the kids to concentrate on passing the ball around,” Holcomb said. “It’s something we need to still work on. We’re opening up the middle too much. We’ll get in some practice and get it taken care of. We just constantly keep leaving the middle open. Everybody wants to be aggressive but you can’t do that all the time. We’ll work on it. It’s a good group of kids so we’ll get it done.”
Keeper Evan List had a quiet night as the Huskies’ defense prevented the Lions from getting off a shot on goal.
“He was complaining about that,” Holcomb said. “I told him to stay in there and get a clean sheet; that’s something goalies want. As long as he worked hard and didn’t let anybody get a goal in there he’d get a clean sheet.”
While the Huskies have some work to do in the passing game, their attack is developing at a rapid pace.
Wednesday’s performance is something Holcomb hopes to see on a regular basis, especially as the team heads into the meat of its schedule.
“We work on that,” Holcomb said. “We’ve still got some holes we have to work on. We’ll try to fix it. We’ve got some tough competition coming up. We’ve always got to look forward to the next game. Unfortunately, I’m never satisfied. I try not to be too negative but I’m never satisfied.”
Cardinal hosts Wickliffe on Monday and Kirtland on Tuesday. The Huskies then play back-to-back road games at Cornerstone Christian on Wednesday and against Geneva at SPIRE Academy on Thursday.
