Clinton’s soccer team took care of business on Friday afternoon behind Ivan Palencia’s hat trick, in their 3-0 win over Croatan in the ‘Battle at the Beach’ in Maysville. It was the first day of the event, and it was a good start to the event for the Dark Horses.

Clinton led 2-0 heading into the intermission, and sealed the deal when Palencia scored his third goal of the game about ten minutes into the second half.

Ivan Ponce assisted on two of the three CHS goals.

“I was really impressed with our control of the ball today,” said Clinton’s head coach Brad Spell, following the win. “Our attitude was really high today too, which I really liked. We encouraged each other, and everyone was able to play ten plus minutes, which as a coach, is always something that you like to be in a position to do.”

Clinton did another thing a coach always likes, and that’s having more shots on goal than their opponent. Clinton had 10 shots on goal to Croatan’s 6. They also had 2 corner kicks to Croatan’s 1.

Despite their good play, Spell noted that it is still early in the season, and he has spotted some things his team still needs to work on.

“We need to improve a gap we have in the midfield,” he said. “Another thing that I think will really benefit us is to get our passes on the ground. We are getting too much air under our passes, kind of just chipping at them, which is making the receiver’s first move with the ball more difficult. It’s something that we’ll continue to stress and try to improve on,” concluded the Dark Horse head coach.

Clinton improves to 2-0 on the season. They also are slated to take on Richlands this weekend.

By Adam Capps

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