Lady Wildcats shut out Carbondale, 4-0
The rivalry between Marion and Carbondale in soccer is quite real, so their first meeting of the season last week at Wildcat Stadium was a pretty big deal.
Once the first goal was scored March 28, the Lady Wildcats seemed to exhale and then basically cruised to a 4-0 win over the Terriers for a South Seven Conference victory.
The all-important first score came in the 15th minute, when Blake Clark took a slick pass from Addi Wall and beat Carbondale keeper Ella Summerlin, who was charging out to try and block the kick.
Then in the 22nd minute, Clark scored again with an assist from Margaux Bruce to give her 16 goals already for the season. Clark is a senior headed to Southern Illinois University's inaugural squad. Wall and Bruce, by the way, are both freshmen.
The score remained 2-0 until halftime, although was nearly higher. Nicole Szidik boomed a shot from near midfield in the final seconds that got past Summerlin just after the horn sounded. The officials gathered and determined it did not count.
Less than five minutes into the second half, Bruce scored her own goal from the right side off a sweet pass from senior Marissa Basi, who is also headed to the Salukis. Bruce had barely missed a couple of good chances in the first half.
"She creates a ton of chances and it was nice to see her finish that one," Clark-Verbeck said.
The goal was Bruce's seventh of the season.
Yet another freshman, Lily Garrett, scored the fourth goal with a rocket launcher shot from 30 yards out with 33:08 still left in the match. Lexi Basi was credited with an assist on the shot.
"When we lay it off and open up the field," Clark-Verbeck said, "we have some good deep threats."
While the Marion offense wasn't peppering Summerlin with shots - the Carbondale keeper made 13 saves - the Lady Cats were doing some nice defending in front of keeper Maddie Goodley, who had a few highlight saves of her own.
But mostly the ball stayed on Marion's side thanks to the defensive play of Ana Cuartas, Adriana Baysinger, Lauryn Kadela, Makenzie Miller and Gloria Wofford in addition to those already mentioned. Kamryn Madinger relieved Goodley and faced one shot.
"We definitely used our width and our depth better in the second half," Clark-Verbeck said. "We transitioned better from defense to offense. Where we stayed kind of packed in and made our field very small in the first half, we made our field very big in the second half, which really helped us."
Marion moved to 7-1 in varsity matches and 1-0 in the South Seven with the victory. Carbondale dropped to 1-7 and 1-1.
The Lady Wildcats suffered their second loss on Friday when they fell, 2-1, to Hickman from Columbia (Mo.) during the Parkland College Showcase in St. Louis.
Clark scored her 17th goal for Marion in the match, which was held at the Lou Fusz Soccer Complex.
Marion's varsity squad is now off until April 8 when it travels to Massac County, although the JV team plays this coming weekend in a tournament hosted by Kelly, Missouri. The next home match is April 10 against Mt. Vernon.
The Terriers met Cape Notre Dame Tuesday and Anna-Jonesboro Thursday night, although results were not available as of press time. They host Harrisburg Monday night.