Clinton returned to soccer action on Wednesday night, hosting conference foe Union. After not playing for a week due to weather postponements on Monday, the Dark Horses looked a little rusty out of the gates. Union packed in the defense and limited the Dark Horses to a single first half goal, but once the Dark Horses broke through in the second half they scored in bunches, coasting to a 7-0 shutout of the Spartans.
The Dark Horses were led by Ivan Ponce who posted the hat trick with three goals. Luke Byrd, Peter Darden, Tristen Holloman and Parker Norris each added a goal apiece to wrap up the Dark Horse scoring. Ponce, Andrew Warren and Logan Spell each had an assist and Darden assisted on two scores.
After the game Clinton head coach Brad Spell talked about his team’s slow start.
“Union really packed it in in the first half with nine players in the box. We moved the ball well but just couldn’t get the ball in the goal. Once we got the second goal in the flood gates opened, they loosened up a little and we got things going,” Spell said.
Spell found plenty of positives from the win, adding “we communicated well all night, shared the ball and kept our head in the game, even when we were not able to finish in the first half. Once we opened up the lead, we were able to get a lot of players in the game and that experience can only help us down the road. This was a good win for us, it felt good to get back in the groove and actually play a match.”
Clinton improves to 8-1-1 overall and 3-0 in conference play. They were to host Midway on Thursday in a match rescheduled from Monday due to weather. The JV match was to kick off at 4:30 with the varsity tilt set for a 6:30 start.
