By Don Eskins
At 2-8 the last thing the Waynesville Lady Tigers wanted to let happen was to fall behind in their matchup with the Parkview Lady Vikings, Thursday afternoon, at Parkview.
But falling behind is just what they did. The Tigers watched on as the Vikings’ Aisha Ramadhan booted one into the net, with four minutes remaining in the opening period, to trail at the half 1-0.
“We just weren’t executing,” said Tiger head coach John Box. “I reminded our kids at the half that we we had prepared for what the Vikings were doing to us and that if they would just go out and execute our game plan we’d be alright.”
The Lady Tigers listened to what their coach had to say and stormed the field, in the second half, to dominate the Vikings.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
At the 32-minute mark of the second half Waynesville senior Krystina Zabek drove the ball into the goal to tie the game up at 1-1. At the twenty-six minute mark a shot from sophomore Savannah Crockett put the Tigers out in front 2-1. It was a lead the Cats wouldn’t relinquish.
Zabek would add one more goal and senior Reyna Watterson another to close out the Lady Vikings 4-1.
With the victory Waynesville elevated their season record to 3-8. Parkview now sits at 3-9.
Despite being 3-8 on the year the Tigers are optimistic about what lies ahead for them this season.
“This is my first year at the helm of the Tiger program so I’ve had to spend a lot time trying to figure out who our players are and who fits best into the system we run,” coach Box said. “We spent a lot of the early part of our season experimenting so I’m not too concerned with our record. Our goal is to get us as prepared as we can be for post- season play.”
“Today we got off to a pretty slow start,” said the Tiger coach. “But they really came to life in the second half. I’m really proud of them for the effort they put out. Things are starting to come together for us.”
While things may be beginning to fall into place for the Tigers, the Lady Vikings are still searching.
“We just can’t seem to get everybody on board at the same time,” said Parkview head coach Shelby Stewart. “We get different groups of girls performing well at different times. It’s hard to win like that.”
The Lady Vikings entertain Oak Park on Friday (April 14) and will be on the road to take on Glendale on Tuesday, April 18.
The Lady Tigers will travel to St. Louis on Friday (April 14) to meet Hazlewood Central and on Tuesday (April 18) they will play host to Rolla.
Scoreboard 1 2 F
Waynesville 0 4 4
Parkview 1 0 1
