Cordell Soccer kicked off the 2023 campaign this past week with a road trip to Elgin to take on the Owls. The night began with a nearly two hour rain delay, followed by brutal cold front and a terrible north wind. The Cordell Lady Devils took the field to start the season. After graduating a significant amount of our scoring from last year, Freshman Rylee Chagollia started her High School career off with a bang scoring two goals while Senior Emma Denny recorded the first goal. The Owls capitalized on a few of the chances that the Lady Devils gave them and ended up with the 4-3 victory. The ladies played hard in the terrible conditions and didn’t let the early deficit get them down.
The second game of the night found the Blue Devils on the wrong side of a 3-0 defeat. The guys played hard and kept the game close for the majority of the contest. The Owls found the back of the goal early in the contest and at half, the Devils were down 3-0. Sophomore Jayden Mondcrief made the start at goal and had some very impressive saves. He was able to block 13 of 16 shots. Although they were down at have, the defense tightened up and held the Owls scoreless the second half.
The home opener saw the Lady Blue and Blue Devils play host to Mc-Cloud in what turned into a feat that hadn’t happened in Cordell Soccer since 2017 season. Both teams were victorious on the same night! The first game of the evening was a dominant affair by the Lady Blue Devils. They came out from the start and scored 2 goals. At half of the first game, the Lady Devils were up 2-0. Junior AnnRayia Harrison and Freshman Jaci Mc-Kown connected on a goal each. The second half, the Lady Devils came out fast and furious. They scored four goals, once again led by Freshman Rylee Chagollia. Chaglollia had 3 goals and McKown connected on a second goal. Sophomore Rhyan Ramirez had a stellar night in the goal stopping all 6 of McCloud’s attempts. The final at the horn was Cordell-6 McCloud-0.
In the second contest of the night, the Blue Devils had a quiet first half with the McCloud boys. Sophomore Matthew Fuller found the back of the net for his first goal of the year on a cross from Sophomore Matthew Rodrique to put the Blue Devils up 1-0. The McCloud Redskins came back a few mins later and scored on a questionable goal on a stop by Keeper Jayden Mondcrief. Mondcrief had another stellar night in the goal, stopping 15 of 16 shots. The defense then tightened up and at the end of regulation, the score was knotted up 1-1. This put the game to a shootout. Once again, Keeper Mondcrief shined as he was able to stop three of McCloud’s penalty kicks to give the Blue Devils the 5-3 win in the shootout. Connecting on penalty kicks in the shoot out were Senior Aiden Middendorf, Senior Thomas Reimer, Sophomore Dason Ramsey and Sophomore Matthew Rodrique.