Prep boys soccer: Hornets fight through the heat, blank Badin 2-0

Michael Oster had to ask more than once to verify the calendar was close to flipping to October.

The annual showdown between his Monroe High School boys soccer team and Badn had had been delayed a half hour due to a heat idex of 98 on the turf field.

To combat the heat, the officials imposed a mandatory water break halfway through each half of what proved to be a 2-0 Hornet win Saturday afternoon.

“You don’t expect a heat wave like this on Sept. 23, and I think it affected both teams,” Oster said after his squad improved to 7-2-2. “This is the kind of game you have in pre-preseason, and that’s what it felt like. It feels like you are playing two full games because it is broken down to four quarters.”

Visiting Badin (3-6-1) applied heat to the Hornets through the midfield, but once the Rams got into the final third of the field, issues once again arose for a squad that has scored nine goals in 10 games.

“I thought we controlled the game,” Badin coach Eric Hickey said. “I thought we controlled a lot of the tempo, but we continue to bog down in the final third, and a lot of our problem comes down to want-to. We have guys who can score, but we are struggling to score.”

Badin was held to one shot on goal in the game as the Hornet backline did a good job of keeping the middle clean and getting the Rams turned around.

“They did a nice job of connecting passes,” Oster said. “They were able to get the ball to their forwards, but I thought our back did a nice job of keeping them in front of us and not letting them get turned. We wanted to keep them with their back to the goal. and we were able to do that.”

Monroe’s offense, meanwhile, was just off throughout most of the game.

After nearly taking a 1-0 lead on a ball played by a Badin defender that hit the post with 5:04 remaining in the half, Hunter Graves rifled one from the top of the box that went off the uprights for football.

Graves had the first best look in the second half, but hit the post with 11:30 remaining. Two minutes later, Ben Griffis hit the post after drawing the Badin keeper off his line.

“That has been the story of our season,” Oster said. “We have had trouble finishing, so we tell them that you have to focus on creating chances.The more chances you create, the better the chance is one will go in.”

Griffis finally cashed in for the Hornets with 4:05 remaining off a corner kick for a 1-0 lead. Rene Leon added a second goal with three ticks remaining in the game.

“One goal against us is like 4-0 right now,” Hickey said. “We have eight freshmen on the field, and mistakes are going to be made that we can’t make. We play hard, but we continue to have mental mistakes and give up soft goals.”

Monroe’s late push came after Oster turned from strategy to motivational speaker on the sidelines.

“The energy level was so different,” Oster said. “You become more of a cheerleader than worrying about tactics. You have to get them through it and try to get that last little drop of effort out of them.”

Nolan Caudill totaled six saves in goal for the Hornets, who will host Valley View on Tuesday. Badin will be at home against Carroll on Monday.

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