By Kary Booher
For the eight seniors on the Nixa High School girls soccer team, Tuesday night easily could have gotten away.
Senior Nights can do that. They’re full of roses to parents. Hugs to teammates. Memories to reflect upon, given most of the girls have played since kindergarten, if not earlier.
“We all told each other, ‘No one is going to cry. One of us cries, we’re all going to cry,” goalkeeper Marrissa Carpenter said. “But we definitely had our mindset that Senior Night is our night. We’re going to play hard.”
In essence, the Lady Eagles had no time for tears as they had to thrash a mid-season swoon and did just that, dominating the Webb City Lady Cardinals 6-0 at Eagle Stadium to improve to 11-5-1, including 4-1 in the Central Ozark Conference.
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Chloe Cash scored two goals, including the first just 10 minutes into the first half, and Alex Johnson contributed a pair of second-half goals before Beth Johnson and Bailey Hunsicker scored in the final five minutes.
But there were two other telling statistics – 33 and four. The first number represented Nixa’s other shots on goal, including 21 in the first half, while the other marked the times Carpenter defended Nixa’s goal only — and that’s if you stretch the definition, given Nixa “safety-kicked” it back to her a couple of times.
This for a Nixa team that was coming off a 1-0 loss to Springfield Catholic on Monday night, part of a stretch in which the Lady Eagles had suffered losses to Ozark and Kickapoo following a statement victory against St. Teresa’s Academy in early April.
“Since we had a tough loss at Catholic, we all came in wanting to win,” Cash said, nothing Catholic had scored early in Monday’s game. “I felt like that first goal (Tuesday) was a hustle goal because we all wanted it.”
If Nixa moves the ball as well as it did Tuesday, it can be a postseason force. The Lady Eagles continually showed excellent footwork passing the ball horizontally and only attacking once a player could find a path to the goal.
“We’ve tried to practice a lot on coming out strong. In the past couple of games, we didn’t come out as strong as we could have been,” Alex Johnson said. “We came out wanting to win, and it showed on the field.”
Nixa coach Evan Palmer was encouraged with the team’s play, especially in the second half, although Webb City goalkeeper Malarie Flood proved stubborn.
“We played a great game against St. Teresa’s. But since then, in those big games, we haven’t found a way to win,” Palmer said. “It’s just doing the little things at the right time. It’s something we are working on.”
He went on.
“We were on the front foot (in the first half), doing some nice things but just couldn’t quiet find the net,” Palmer said of Tuesday’s win. “Credit Webb City’s goalkeeper. She made some nice saves as well. They kept them in the game. That was the focus in the second half – come out sharp and find the right pass in the offensive third. We had so many bad angled shots and crosses to the goalie, so we wanted to get away from the goalie and have runners. Once we got that together, we did some good things.”
Johnson and Carpenter were among the eight seniors, who also included Arianna Cobb, Maycie Palmer, Abbie Brandt, Gracie Gimlin, Beth Johnson and Hunsicker.
“At the beginning, it was a little emotional, but I think we all grasped the game well,” Alex Johnson said. “We all see the future, and we know this is not the end.”
