LADY TIGERS KEEP GOAL IN FOCUS, UP RECORD TO 14-0

Entering just the second season of high school soccer at Cape Central this spring, the Lady Tigers set the lofty goal of an undefeated season for 1997.

With a 3-1 home victory over Carbondale, Ill., Monday at Shawnee Park, improving their record to 14-0, the Lady Tigers are just two victories away from attaining their `perfect' goal.

As amazing as a perfect record may seem in just the team's second season of soccer, Central coach Tom Doyle, after talking with each of his players before the season started, had no choice but to expect perfection this year after last year's 10-5 season.

"I asked each of the players before the season started what their individual and team goals were," Doyle said. "To their credit they all were saying they wanted to go undefeated."

Victories over Poplar Bluff Thursday at home and Friday at Hillsboro will secure the Lady Tigers' perfect regular-season record. Central has already beat Bluff twice and Hillsboro once this season, but don't expect the Lady Tigers to take the final two games lightly.

"Knowing that we have two more games left, and we're 14-0, that really fires everybody up," senior tri-captain Sara Gragg said. "Coach (Doyle) said before the season `a coach's dream is to go undefeated' and it doesn't happen very often, so maybe we'll do it for him."

Gragg, from her defensive sweeper position in front of the goal, has been instrumental in keeping Central's opponents off the scoreboard this year. Including Carbondale's late goal, the Lady Tigers have allowed just three goals all year.

Leading the offense has been the other two Central captains -- seniors Nichole Thiele and Abby Harris. Thiele, who scored the Lady Tigers second goal to put them up 2-0, leads Central with 18 goals. Harris, who scored the first goal on an assist from Thiele, has seven.

After a late Carbondale goal made it 2-1, sophomore Kim Aslinger put the contest away with a goal with about five minutes left.

Doyle, who also coaches the Central boys soccer team in the fall, said the Central girls have the athletic ability, but most importantly, the attitude to go undefeated.

"That's one of the differences between coaching girls and coaching boys," said Doyle with a sly grin. "With the girls, you tell them to go through a wall and they try to go through a wall. The guys will try to find a way to go over the wall, around the wall, or under the wall."

Thiele, a four-sport star athlete at Central, is one of many outstanding female athletes on the Lady Tigers' roster that excel in the physically demanding sport of soccer.

"We have good athletes that can play just about any sport," Thiele said. "You put a soccer ball in front of them and there they go."

Thiele, who also participates for the Central track team during the spring, wishes soccer would have started sooner at Central.

"It's a loss we didn't have a team four years ago," Thiele said. "There's no telling how good we would be now."

Although the Lady Tigers are looking forward to the upcoming district tournament, they realize what an undefeated regular season would mean to the Central soccer program.

"I want to go down in history," said Harris with a grin.

And her teammates agree.

"To go to state would be wonderful," said Gragg. "But to have an undefeated season would be just a great feeling."