The Lady Wizards took on the Skyline Falcons last Thursday night, ending the night with a 4-0 victory and several underclassmen debuts.
The girls have been training and preparing since the end of November in preparation for this season. Their training involved conditioning, weight training and skills to help develop the players into the strongest and fastest versions of themselves.
Last Thursday night the team got to put all this training to the test: “Coming out the for first time we had some younger kids on the field. I knew we’d have some first-game jitters and I think it showed early on, but we finally settled in and started playing the soccer that we expect to play,” Coach Mike Lordemann said.
It took a little bit of time for the Wizards to settle into the game, but once they did there was no turning back. In a matter of twenty minutes, the team went up on Skyline 3-0 and closed out the half with this score line.
After the second half kickoff, the game rebalanced and both teams settled into the game. After a dominant performance by the Wizards, the team finally scored their fourth and final goal to close out the game.
Lordemann said, “It was nice for us to be able to step on the field last Thursday against Skyline, play well, and let our players see the potential that we have.” Speaking to the potential of the team was the appearance of two freshmen who had a major impact on the flow of the game; one in particular scored two goals.
Rylinn Berndhardt (09) is new to the team this year and certainly did not disappoint her teammates by scoring two goals to help solidify the result. “We had a couple of young freshmen step on the field for us on Thursday night, Rylinn Bernhardt and Savana Isom, and I really thought they fit in well for playing their first varsity game ever,” Lordemann said.
After the game, Lordemann introduced a new motto to the team: With each other, for each other (WEOFEO). This particular motto is one that is meant to bring the team together in every way possible, especially on the field: “The WEOFEO medal is a way to recognize anybody on our team for doing the right things based on team standards. It has nothing to do with scoring goals, making saves. It strictly says, ‘I’m with my team,’” Lordemann said.
Co-captain and goalkeeper Leah Bacon (12) was the first to earn the medal after Thursday’s victory as she made two game-changing saves early in the first half to keep the score line 0-0. Bacon said Skyline “had a really good shot on goal, and I came up big with a save, which I think really set the tone for what the team needed to be doing.”
Lordemann announces who the game’s winner is after every team victory and hopes that in the future it will not only be for players on the field but also for players cheering hard on the bench. Lordemann said, “Leah kept us in the game early with a couple big saves, right? That really kept the score zero to zero when Skyline could have gone up two early. If Skyline got a goal or two early, it’s possibly a different game.”
With the first game and the first victory in the bag, the girls will move onto the rest of the season with clear expectations set and a determination to not only do right by the team but also do right by the game.
