Tigers win two to reach title game

The Smith-Cotton boys soccer scored more Friday night than some football teams.

The Tigers erupted for combined goals in the doubleheader of the Smith-Cotton Soccer Invitational Friday night as they toppled the Benton Cardinals 9-1 and the Osage Indians 5-0.

Smith-Cotton will play a team to be determined at 5:30 p.m. today at Suzie Ditzfeld Field for the championship.

In the early game, S-C used a balanced and unselfish attack as eight players scored the Tigers’ nine goals.

The second game featured more of the same. The Tigers jumped out to an early 4-0 lead and handily defeated Osage.

“The part I was really pleased with was how we distributed the goals to almost everyone.” said S-C coach Ethan Weller. “We talked to the kids about possessing the ball and not playing so direct. It worked well and I was very pleased.”

In the Osage game, the Tigers found themselves with several scoring chances early.

With just 10 minutes in the books, Alex Lang rifled a shot that blasted off the Osage crossbar but was cleared by the defense. The pressure continued and nine minutes later Lang got his revenge.

At the 21:31 mark, Lang dribbled past a pair of defenders and Indians’ goalie Vince Sabourin was forced off his line. Seeing Sabourin charging, Lang poked the ball to the corner and into the side netting, giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead.

While the possession game appeared even early on, Smith-Cotton soon took the clear upper hand.

At the 27-minute mark, Cody Meyer received a pass in the middle of the Osage penalty box. In one clean motion, Meyer turned, shot and scored and in a matter of 10 minutes, S-C had taken a 2-0 lead.

Just one minute after the Meyer goal, Osage was called for a penalty five yards out of the penalty box. Jose Castillo took the free kick for the Tigers and placed a shot over the defender’s wall and into the net.

Osage couldn’t find an answer for the S-C offense and struggled to maintain possession in the midfield.

The Tigers tallied another goal in the final 12 minutes before halftime to take a 4-0 lead..

Smith-Cotton didn’t miss a beat in the second half and continued to dominate the possession game.

Meyer scored with 10 minutes left in the game on an assist by Lang to push the score to 5-0.

In the Benton game, Lang, Meyer, Spencer Howell, Ricky Bain, Donovan Schnicker, Dakota Shepard, Timmy Lor and Charlie Wheeler all scored for the Tigers.

Lang scored the first and last goals for the Tigers, who improved to 8-4 on the year.