The Grenada High School soccer teams opened the 2021-22 season with a road trip to face Class 5A Columbus. Both teams had a positive start as they Lady Chargers won a 7-0 decision and the Chargers blanked the Falcons by a 7-0 decision.
A day later, the teams faced proverbial Class 5A power Lafayette dropping both games. The girls lost a 7-0 decision and the boys were on the short end of a 2-1 decision.
“I thought we went out and played pretty good against,” Coach Chris Miller said. “We saw some areas that needed to be cleaned up but overall I was pleased with a lot of things.”
Kate Blankenship led the way with five goals scored. Allison Escobedo had a goal and an assist. Greenlee Mosconi finished with one goal. Chloe Gillis, Perrin Jackson and Kelsey Hodges all had an assist.
Columbus
Aiden White led Grenada with four goals scored while McCarron Clausel had a goal and two assists. Brad Neathery finished with a goal scored. Brayden Brown and Jacob Moore each added assists.
“We bring back some key pieces this year, but we are also having to break in some some new faces in spots,” Coach Taylor Goode said. “We have some guys who played a little bit for us last year are having to play a much larger role.”
Defensively, Luke Mattox and Dylan Carnathan were the standouts. Luke Hardin had a solid game in goal for the Chargers.
Lafayette
Goode was proud of his team’s effort against the Commodores. Grenada’s lone goal came on a penalty kick from White with 25 minutes left in the game.
“We played hard for 80 minutes – that is all I can ask for from them,” Goode said. Lafayette is a quality team, but I thought our guys rose to the challenge and competed. The game was tied with 10 minutes left when they scored their second goal. We will bounce back against Canton.”
Clausel had an outstanding game along with Hardin at goalkeeper.
Grenada travels to Canton Tuesday for a pair of matches starting at 5 p.m. Saturday, they host North Pontotoc in a pair of matches that will begin at 11 a.m.
