Seymour Soccer Splits First Two

By: Lee Ramsey
lee@seymourherald.com
The Seymour Lady Eagles soccer team opened this season at home with a loss to the Science Hill Lady Hill Toppers by a score of 5-3.
Science Hill is one of the better soccer programs in the state.
Even with incredible adversity, the Lady Eagles stood toe-to-toe with the Lady Hill Toppers.
Science Hill is a much larger school than Seymour. They played 18 players as opposed to 13 for Seymour.
The loss of six starters is also a major factor for the Lady Eagles, losing two this season to injury and four from last season to graduation. To make a bad situation worse, Seymour lost their starting goal keeper, Nikki Wiesmann to a shoulder injury. Brittany Seagle was her replacement. She plays basketball at Seymour and has only had one soccer practice in her life at goal keeper or soccer period.
Seymour led after the first five minutes by one after Courtney Dyer scored off a corner kick by Kirstie Bridges.
Seymour Head Coach Drew Payne said, “That first goal was a confidence builder.”
The Lady Eagles lead didn’t last long however as the Lady Hill Toppers led 3-1 at the half.
They then scored another goal the last five minutes of the second half making it 5-1.
The tough Lady Eagles didn’t give up, however, after Lauren Auction scored off a Sarah Brewer corner kick making the score 5-2.
Soon after that, Jodie Wood scored on a penalty kick making the final score 5-3.
Seymour then traveled to Morristown East and won by a score of 1-0. The only goal was scored by freshman Sarah Brewer on a free kick with 15 minutes to go in the game from about 30 yards. The Lady Eagles out shot Morristown East an incredible 26 to 3 with outstanding ball up field control.
The Seymour margin of victory over Morristown East was much larger last season with a more experienced team.
With four injuries this season, Coach Payne talked about facing adversity.
“We’ve had young players step up and fill the gaps,” he said. “They’ve done a good job.
“We had a very good pre-season and the scrimmages went really well.”
Science Hill should be the toughest team Seymour will face all season according to various sources.
“They (Lady Hill Toppers) had too much fire power,” Payne said. “We had an inexperienced goal keeper but she did a great job.
“They were very fast and athletic. We didn’t quit.”
Ironically, Coach Payne seemed less pleased with the Morristown East win than he was with the Science Hill loss as far as team performance.
“We didn’t play well at all against Morristown East but we did get a win,” he said. “However, I’m not satisfied with how we played.
“Our goal is still to win the district. We can win on any given day even though we are less experienced than last year.
“We had confidence going into this season and Science Hill didn’t hurt that. We have to keep improving one day at a time and keep our confidence at a high level.”
Next up for the Lady Eagles Soccer team is at Morristown West on Thursday.
The Seymour Herald would like to encourage as many fans as possible to participate in the Seymour Lady Eagle Soccer Booster Club. It is a great organization.