ZIONSVILLE – The first half of the Zionsville girls soccer season has been plagued by injuries.
But the Lady Eagles have embraced the ‘next player up’ mentality, and showed it in a convincing 5-0 win over Franklin Central on Wednesday night.
“They have a done great job,” Zionsville head coach Rob Klatte said. “We have had several players step up and young players take on more responsibility than maybe they thought they would. I’ve always said one of the hardest things is – you can get good contributions from freshmen and sophomores, as long as you don’t put too much responsibility on them. But we have had too and we have kids who have stepped up.
“Kathryn Simmons has stepped in and done a fantastic job. She is kind of like a firewoman for us, filling in multiple spots. Kendall (Theobald) came in and scored a goal from right back and has gotten a lot of minutes the last two matches. What’s more exciting is we are getting those contributions and now we are starting to get some girls back.”
Slowly, but surely, the Eagles are getting players back from those injuries.
And while it is frustrating in the moment, Klatte is looking at the positives from it and how it can be beneficial for the Eagles come post-season time when they have improved depth because of the minutes girls are getting now.
“It gives us better depth if someone goes down and the experience is massive,” Klatte said. “You think about scoring your first varsity goal, and the confidence that gives you and things like that. We want to keep on improving over the next three weeks, so that come sectional time we are peaking.”
After topping Lawrence North 5-0 on Aug. 31, the Eagles offense wasn’t quite clicking with some of the new pieces, scoring just one goal in their previous three games heading into Wednesday night’s match-up.
Wednesday, the Eagles got on the board in the 14th minute, getting a goal from Sanna Smith, then doubling the lead on a goal from Lauren Joseph.
Coming out of the half, the Eagles put the game away.
Maddie Grimm scored just 1:02 into the half, and when Theobold scored less than three minutes later, the game was essentially put away.
Riley Cunningham made it 5-0 with 16:24 to play.
“We spent a lot of time in practice in front of the goal, talking about our box organization and what kind of balls to play across to create opportunities,” Klatte said. “It’s been a combination of the injuries and then putting people in some places where they aren’t used to being to score and there is a little hesitancy.But getting the result, getting the opportunity to score ad finishing – that provides some confidence.”
Things don’t get easier for Zionsville as they host No. 7 Cathedral and No. 2 Noblesville next.
Of their final six games – five come against teams ranked in the top-10 of the state.
“We are going to spend a lot of time in front of goal over the next three weeks,” Klatte said. “If we are going to improve 1% each week, what would have the biggest impact – and that is the ability to put the ball on frame, get some rebounds and score goals.”
Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.