Season opener… Jr. Lady Cyclones fall 5-nil on road at Liberty Bell

Published 1:08 pm Friday, August 28, 2020

By Ivan Sanders

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BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR SPORTS EDITOR
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
JOHNSON CITY – It hasn’t even been two weeks since head coach Eddie Morrell and assistant coach Samantha Husbands had tryouts and evaluations to select the 2020 T.A. Dugger Jr. High Jr. Lady Cyclone soccer team.
That didn’t matter, however, as on Thursday on Steve Spurrier Field at Kermit-Tipton Stadium the Jr. Lady Cyclones opened up its 2020 campaign by taking on the Liberty Bell Middle School Lady Patriots.
TAD didn’t get off to a good start as the Lady Patriots built a comfortable 4-nil advantage at the halftime horn.
It didn’t discourage the young team of Jr. Lady Cyclones as they came out of the break and continued to play physical with Liberty Bell and although they couldn’t break the goose egg on their side of the board, the Jr. Lady Cyclones played 1-nil ball the rest of the way showing a determination that couldn’t be missed by their head coach.
“We are extremely proud of the way they performed,” said Morrell. “The hustle is there, the drive is there, and the desire is there and what we saw that we can improve are coachable moments and we can take care of that next week and bring them back with the same drive and better skill.”
Morrell was very impressed with the way that his team came out of the break and could have easily folded but instead rallied to play strong on the defensive side of the ball to hold the Lady Patriots to only one goal the rest of the way.
“We held them 1-nil in the second half and we were subbing players while doing it which shows we have some depth,” Morrell added. “We are able to go to multiple players to get jobs done and I think that is really going to carry us far.”
One thing that Morrell continues to discover is that he has some kicking power in several of his players. Now, the main thing is to learn how to direct the power in the way it has to for the team to be effective.
“Izzy Lewis and Camden Garland both have excellent legs and now they are in a league where they are going to have to learn to direct that energy and they will get it done,” said Morrell.
Even though the game didn’t turn out the way the Jr. Lady Cyclones hoped for, Coach Morrell feels that there will be many bright spots to touch on as the team continues to grow.
“What we take from this game to build on next week is number one we have to have a better scheme for keeping the ball out of the center of the field. We have to learn to run our lanes,” Morrell commented.
“Second, our throwing game is a little weak and that is something that we need to work on and thirdly just overall field awareness. Let’s make sure we know who is on either side of us and we know where our outlets are.
“These are all coachable things and they are going to improve quickly on everything. I am very proud of them.”
The Jr. Lady Cyclones welcome the Vance Jr. Lady Vikings to Dave Rider Field inside Brown-Childress Stadium next Tuesday at 6 pm for their home opener.

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