Lady Mules shut out Cape Central

In an aggressive — and defensive — soccer matchup between the Poplar Bluff Lady Mules and Cape Central Lady Tigers, it was Poplar Bluff who emerged victorious.

The Lady Mules went head-to-head in their most physical game of the season Wednesday and walked away with a 1-0 win over Cape Central at Mules Stadium.

“We knew going into this matchup that it would be a very physical game against Cape because they’re one of the most physical top teams,” Poplar Bluff coach Rusty Crafton said. “I thought we had more opportunities to score a bit more, but we failed short on our attacks, but that’s to be expected going up against such a physical team.”

The game started with a lot of aggression as both teams battled for possession. Normally, the Lady Mules have struggled to gain the upper hand on offense early, but that wasn’t the case against the Lady Tigers. They acted as the aggressors and set the tone for the rest of the contest.

The Lady Mules attacked most of the game, keeping Central’s goalie in constant defense mode as they kept the ball on their side of the field, looking for any opening to strike.

After a few failed attempts for a goal, Poplar Bluff finally connected with the game’s only score of the game on a slashing kick from sophomore Madyson Kordick off a cross-field assist from Hannah Key.

Under the seven-minute mark in the first period, senior Olivia Carda went for another shot on goal, but the ball curved and connected with the side of the post. Despite the many attempts to add more points to the scoreboard, the Lady Mules continued the attack on Central.

Crafton said the Lady Mules came out more prepared for the matchup as he understood their style of play, and it set them up for chances to execute.

“Cape Central has a more direct style of play because they rarely possess the ball in the backfield,” Crafton said. “We just wanted to pressure them a little bit. We knew they were going to move forward with the ball, but we just needed to play fast and control the top for us to win and we did.”

The Lady Mules took a combined 19 shots at the Lady Tigers, and senior Nevaeh Larkins had seven saves.

With the only scored goal of the game, Kordick felt good about the Lady Mules’ approach to getting the win.

“I feel like we played a lot better than our last couple of games,” Kordick said about the teams’ performance. “We connected passes, and we just hustled all together as a team.

Our defense is really solid, and we’re an all-around aggressive team, but going up against a team with more aggression was pretty tough. I believe we held our own, and it’s really great to get this win.”