Rain and goals pour down as Bishop LeBlond shuts out Benton
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — Rain poured over Bishop LeBlond High School as clouds rolled across the pitch, setting the stage for a damp but dominant performance in some Midland Empire Conference girls soccer. The Bishop LeBlond Golden Eagles wasted no time taking control, cruising to an 8-0 win over the winless Benton Lady Cardinals, sealing the match with 15 minutes to play via the mercy rule.
For LeBlond, it was a bounce-back performance after a week off, improving to .500 on the season. For Benton, the search for its first win continues, now sitting at 0-10.
“We switched up our runs and everything, and we were getting a lot of shots off against our own defense, so I said, ‘just try to apply that to the game we're going to play, don't try to change anything. Go out and do what we've been practicing,’” Golden Eagles head coach Chad Thompson said. “The ball was crossed and we had plenty of girls in the box.”
The scoring barrage began just eight minutes into the match. After Benton missed an early chance off a corner kick, the home team countered. Katie Sego’s attempt deflected off a Benton defender’s knee and into the net for an own goal and a 1-0 advantage.
Roughly 10 minutes later, senior Charley Elliott doubled the lead with a powerful strike that soared past the Benton keeper’s left side. Sego added another before the half, finishing a clean one-on-one chance after junior Kendall Cathcart drew three defenders and laid off a perfectly timed pass to her left. Sego tucked her shot inside the far post, making it 3-0 at halftime.
“It's definitely a big boost. Like I said, everybody knows they can score; it's building the want to score that we've been working on,” Thompson said. “Hopefully a game like this one tonight really gets that want put back into them.”
The second half picked up where the first left off. Just 12 minutes in, freshman Emily Conz slipped a shot through the goalkeeper’s gloves for a 4-0 lead. Conz added another later in the half, joining Sego and Elliott as two-goal scorers.
“It gives us more confidence in what we're doing, and we'll just keep shooting to see how much we get,” Conz said. “We just try to keep on shooting.”
With a freshman, junior and senior all notching braces, LeBlond showed off the program’s balance and future potential.
“I think they enjoyed it (rain). They came out and were sliding on the ground before the game,” Thompson said. “I said, ‘get dirty now, don't try to play to stay clean.’”
Benton will try again for its first win Thursday at Savannah. LeBlond, now 3-3, travels to face Cameron the same evening. Both matches are scheduled for 5 p.m.
