BY DANIEL SCHMIDT
THE OBSERVER
OPELIKA — The Smiths Station High School girls and boys soccer teams both secured 7A Area 4 wins over Opelika High School at Bulldog Stadium on March 10.
Senior forward Haley Ciccarello scored two goals and assisted a third to lead the Lady Panthers (10-4, 2-1) to a 3-0 win against the Lady Bulldogs (4-4-1, 0-2), and Cameron Wood’s hattrick secured a 3-2 win for the Panthers (8-5-1, 2-1) over the Bulldogs (4-4-1, 0-2).
Engel Reyes scored both Bulldogs’ goals.
Lady Panthers 3, Lady Bulldogs 0
Following a 10-0 loss to Auburn High School on March 5, it was a welcome result for SSHS girls’ coach Dennis Jones, who praised his players’ passing and their ability to prevent counterattacks.
“We know that if we’re going to make the second round of the playoffs, we have to take care of business against Opelika in the first and second games,” Jones said. “We practice keeping possession and making clean passes to each other. I told the girls not to just start panic kicking and make sure that we’re playing the feet.”
After finishing last year on the girls 7A All-State team as a junior, it was business as usual for Ciccarello, who “makes the team” according to Jones. Even so, she had to calm some early butterflies before turning in another stellar performance.
“I was very nervous but excited [since it was an area game], and I’m glad that we kicked it off with the win,” Ciccarello said. “We just kept calm and we weren’t getting nervous that we weren’t scoring, and kept passing around them, so it made the opportunities come easier.”
Ciccarello broke the deadlock 11 minutes before halftime after unlocking the Lady Bulldogs’ defense with a gorgeous, sweeping through ball from the right wing. Rilynn Hundley then finished calmly under pressure, even as the goalkeeper bravely rushed her to close the space.
In the second half, SSHS and OHS battled evenly, with the Lady Panthers generally finding more and higher-quality chances and the Lady Bulldogs creating several dangerous scoring opportunities in the final 10 minutes.
SSHS’ persistence paid off with 4:45 left in the game after Sophie Fowler worked her way into the box and served Ciccarello for a point-blank goal with a low pass across the face of the goal.
Nearly four minutes later, Fowler recorded her second assist of the game with a throw-in to Ciccarello, who finished the play off with a beautiful, left-footed goal near the edge of the box with 51 seconds left.
Panthers 3, Bulldogs 2
Since returning to coaching, SSHS boys’ head coach Mike Ward has made it a point for his young team to play with a high-percentage passing and possession style unfamiliar to most of them.
While he said there’s still room for improvement, a 78% passing success rate and multiple goals in a crucial road area game gave him plenty to smile about.
“I couldn’t be prouder of them. We’re just young, and they’re learning the game, so we’re going to get better,” Ward said. “I saw a lot of guts and determination, and they stuck with the game plan. We’re trying to get away from kickball, which is typically what Americans play, to get into a possession style.”
Wood said he expects the win to give him and his teammates the confidence to propel them through the rest of the season and sustain a push to make the playoffs.
“I get nervous, obviously, like every other player, but I came in confident even though I wasn’t really expecting the hat trick,” Wood said. “Most of our players are freshmen and sophomores; that’s basically our whole team. When they grow up, they’re going to be nice. They ball out every game, and I’m proud of them.”
Reyes kicked things off less than five minutes into the match by converting a short Jonathon Kilpatrick pass on the right wing into a stunning first-touch chip over SSHS’s goalkeeper and inside the top left corner.
However, Wood evened the score with 22:47 left before halftime with a decisive 50-yard run through OHS’ defense on the left wing. His low-driven shot skirted past the goalkeeper into the bottom right corner for a finish that matched his excellent dribbling.
Wood then secured a first-half brace less than eight minutes later in a similar fashion to his first goal after securing the ball during a fierce contest for possession between numerous players from both teams. That gave the Panthers a decisive 2-1 halftime lead.
Following the break, the Bulldogs made their situation even worse nine minutes into the second half after a questionable second yellow card reduced them to 10 men.
That disadvantage initially mattered little as Reyes tied the game with 26:12 left to play by rounding the SSHS goalkeeper well outside of the box and launching an 18-yard shot several steps later.
Less than six minutes later, though, that red card reared its ugly head, with Wood recording a hat-trick after gaining possession of the ball after a failed OHS clearance in front of their own goal. With the ball a mere 10 yards away from the net, Wood cleanly struck a chest-height shot from right to left in front of the goalkeeper’s face to put the Panthers up for good.
From there, a furious comeback bid in the final 10 minutes from OHS fell just short.
