Lady Mules see winning streak end on penalty kicks

The Poplar Bluff Lady Mules’ soccer team got pushed to its limit as Wednesday’s matchup required a few extra periods to conclude.

In a back-and-forth matchup against Marion High, the Lady Mules’ winning streak ends at six as they fell short 4-3 in a series of sudden-death penalty kicks. With this loss, the Lady Mules slip to 11-7 on the season.

The Lady Mules struggled earlier this season as they constantly fought through injuries, but with a few returns, they have made a quick turnaround as the district tournament approaches.

Poplar Bluff coach Rusty Crafton said the Lady Mules competed very well the entire game, but he could tell that his team wasn’t all together mentally.

“This was a tough loss, and I think we had a lot of opportunities to finish, but we missed our chances at the goal line,” Crafton said. “It may have been the couple of days we had off because we didn’t look like ourselves tonight.

I don’t think we played very well, and we still were able to stay in the game, so that’s pretty good. Overall, we could have had a better game. We didn’t really play our game tonight, but we’ll get another chance tomorrow.”

After a brief rain delay, both teams attacked the field with a full head of steam. Despite a tough battle for the upper hand, neither team scored a goal in the first period. As the game went on, the Lady Mules took every chance to score, but each kick either went to the left or over the top.

Despite great effort, both teams had multiple opportunities to score a goal, but due to the weather’s circumstances, no one could execute a clean kick into the net.

Senior Nevaeh Larkins, who finished with 14 saves, came up big time for the Lady Mules with back-to-back stops in the last seconds of the second overtime.

During the sudden death penalty kicks, the Mules connected with three goals from Olivia Carda, Sydney Kramer and Madyson Kordick.

With only one game to end the regular season, the Lady Mules are back in action to host Fredericktown Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

“I think they’ll pick it back up,” Crafton said about playing back-to-back games. “I think the layoff we had hurt us this time around. We play a lot better when we have a quick turnaround game, so I think we will be just fine.”