Jackson opens girls soccer season with overwhelming win

In a chilly home opener and senior night for the Jackson girls' soccer team, the Indians opened the season with a 15-0 shutout win over the Kelly Hawks in just 45 minutes of play on Monday.

Coming off of a dominating season in 2023 by taking home the trophy in the Class 4 District 1 championship and finishing the season with an impressive 17-2 record, there are big expectations for the Indians this year, as they look for their seventh straight district title.

"Our ultimate goal is to win the district championship," Jackson senior Lauren Marchi said.

The Indians did not hesitate to open the season strong by putting pressure on Kelly right from the opening whistle of the match. They had no trouble finding the back of the net with goal after goal throughout the first half.

“I think we played pretty well," Marchi said. "As the season goes on, we're gonna play harder teams and we're going to have to be more disciplined with our skills and stuff. As a team, as a whole, we did pretty well. The speed is going to get a lot faster, and with that, we’re going to have to be more disciplined with the ball,”

Although many starters and upperclassmen on Jackson's roster cheered on their team from the sideline in Monday's match. It goes to show that the Indians are looking to be a dominating force once again this year on the soccer pitch.

"I think we played unselfish," Jackson senior Olivia Klinkhardt said. "We let players who don't normally get a chance to score as much, like our underclassmen, our freshmen. We gave them the opportunity to come out here and score a few goals in our first game. Because our games moving forward, we are going to have a pretty hard schedule this year, so they're not going to get all those opportunities as they did tonight."

The Jackson High School Indians look to build onto Monday's successful win over Kelly in their Lady Indian Showcase which will take place March 22 through 23rd at Jackson High School against Marquette and Helias Catholic.

“We want to play quickly," Klinkhardt said. "We like to play these harder teams. It prepares us for our districts. So we just want to work together and have the best year we can."