CNE’s Anna Best looks to gain control of the ball against the Lady Broncos.
Clermont Northeastern soccer started the 2020 season last week, finishing off the first week of the season with a full day of soccer against Western Brown.
The boys teams got the day started. Western Brown took an early lead, with Evan Grimes scoring in the sixth minute of play to give the Broncos a 1-0 lead.
CNE answered, as Austin Yeager slotted one home in the 12th minute to tie the game at one.
Twenty-five minutes later, the Broncos regained the lead on a goal by Dakota Waits. Yeager responded again, scoring to send the game into halftime tied at two.
The Rockets had chances early in the second half to take the lead. A direct free kick in the seventh minute of play was blocked by the Broncos, and an indirect free kick from point-blank range inside the box was saved by Western Brown.
Three minutes later, Logan Cummins scored off a corner kick to put the Broncos ahead.
“We got a little lazy on defense, did a little more watching than playing,” CNE coach David Yeager said. “The real breakdown was on that corner kick, but we got some guys in different spots today. We had some moving around.”
Yeager, who filled in for CNE head coach Rob Carlier, said the team was still figuring out how to play together.
“I don’t know how many freshmen we have on the field, but they’re still getting used to each other, they’re still learning,” Yeager said. “You have a freshman sweeper out there, he’s still learning to direct traffic and get the confidence to yell at some upperclassmen.”
Part of CNE’s problem was a lack of depth, which could have led to the team wearing down late.
”Two kids on the bench, not a lot of subs. We did a lot of running. I think we’re really equal, if we played 10 games I think we could split with them…I thought we played well. Western Brown played hard, we played hard. We just didn’t execute.”
Logan Carlier, CNE’s goalkeeper, finished with 12 saves. He had collected 13 saves in the team’s prior game, a 5-1 loss to Goshen.
“Logan’s done a nice job,” Yeager said. “He made a couple nice saves. We’re still working with him on getting him a little more willing to come out of the goal and grab some of those through balls they put through so the kids can’t just run on him. We have a lot of fast guys on the back line, but it helps when the keeper comes out.”
About an hour and a half later, CNE’s girls team took the field against the Lady Broncos.
The Lady Rockets started the scoring in the contest, with Abbey Puckett putting CNE on top 1-0 in the 23rd minute.
Two minutes later, Hadley Jones tied the game, sending a shot off the hands of CNE goalkeeper Caitlyn Lakes and into the back of the net.
The game stayed level until the 23rd minute of the second half, when Jones put in her second goal to give Western Brown a 2-1 lead. The Lady Broncos would win by that score.
”That first one we gave up was iffy,” CNE head coach Craig Yeager said. “She jumped, she was like, “I just jumped too soon.’ It happens. If she had just tried to pop it instead of trying to catch it, it’d have been alright. It just hung up there. That second one was nice. She made a really nice run. She stepped in front of my girl, that’s a freshman striker I have playing defense right now. It’ll be a learning curve for us.”
CNE had some injury issues in the contest that forced players to play out of position. That, according to Craig Yeager, could have attributed to some of the team’s issues defensively.
“I’m basically putting freshman back at left and right defender right now to try and guard some pretty good girls from Western,” Craig Yeager said. “They’ve got some good players, some club players. They’re good without the ball, they move well.”
On the plus side, Craig Yeager said he was happy with how his team performed in certain aspects of the first half.
“We did really well pursuing the ball, staying in front of the ball and getting out to the sides,” Craig Yeager said. “We had some really nice runs. We were winning a lot of 50/50 balls in the first half. I think just getting tired, we stopped. We stopped winning 50/50 balls. I think our defense played really well in the first half, but when you start to get tired, mental mistakes here and there.”
Both CNE teams are scheduled to be in action on Thursday, September 3. The teams will host Bethel-Tate, with the boys game beginning at 5 p.m. and the girls contest at 7 p.m.