Lady Mules secure home win over Kelly

The Poplar Bluff Lady Mules landed their second straight win of the season with some aggressive play on the soccer field.

The Lady Mules wouldn’t be denied against the Kelly Lady Hawks as they constantly took shots toward the goalkeeper to secure an 8-0 victory. The Lady Mules improved to 3-4 on the season. Due to the weather conditions, the senior night festivities were canceled, but the Lady Mules still played with an extra boost.

With the Lady Mules picking up their second straight win, head coach Rusty Crafton said the win was accomplished by having some of the girls on the team step up, which worked in their favor.

“I thought we played great,” Crafton said. “We moved the ball really well, and that’s one of the keys to setting the tone. I challenged the team to just pass the ball and move the ball around because we’ll have to utilize that against Seckman on Thursday. It will be a difficult game, but hopefully, this win will give us that boost we need to compete.”

The Lady Mules held an 11-1 matchup against Kelly with a seven-game winning streak, and they looked to continue the tradition with a dominant performance.

The Lady Mules kicked off the game with back-to-back goals to take a quick 2-0 in the opening half. Though the Lady Mules didn’t see a threat from Kelly, they did not take their foot off the gas and continued to scorch the goalline. The Lady Mules went into halftime with a 5-0 lead with the focus to add more.

The second half was mostly the same as Kelly couldn’t keep the Lady Mules from charging down the field. They collected multiple goals, and midway through the second half, the Lady Mules snagged enough goals to seal the win.

Crafton said the team is starting to gel the more they play, and he hopes they can keep it going.

“I think girls are finally stepping up, and we’re just moving people around until we fill their spots,” he said. “Moving people around until we find their spot is a process, but having everyone step up has really helped us a lot.”

Senior Cori Duncan said the game plan for the Lady Mules against Kelly was to maintain possession of the ball, and she believed it was a good team win. The Lady Mules will attempt to build off their recent wins as they prepare to take on Seckman High School in their first district matchup of the season.

“We just need to take our practices seriously this week,” Duncan said. “This is going to be a tough district game for us, so we have to really work hard for that. If we do what we did for this game, there’s hope that we can land another against Seckman.”