Mexico girls soccer was at a high in the morning before hitting a low in the afternoon.

Mexico vs Owensville Photo Gallery

Mexico vs Festus Photo Gallery

The Lady Bulldogs beat Owensville 7-2 on Saturday morning before losing 8-0 to Festus in the afternoon in the Chris Hotop Classic in Mexico. Mexico (2-2) scored its most goals in a game since a 10-1 victory over Moberly in 2014 but then lost to Festus (5-0) in the title game for the second straight year and did so via mercy rule in the 73rd minute.

Head coach Sarah Olson said Mexico’s better offensive start this season has happened while adjusting to a new formation and players. Olson said the Owensville victory featured plenty of unselfish plays and the girls executing the team’s game plan.

“We have implemented a bit of a new formation providing more stability in the midfield,” Olson said. “That helped connect the defense to the midfield to the forward.”

Mexico lost its opener Monday that same week at home 3-2 in overtime to California before winning 3-2 at Fatima the next night. Olson said the Lady Bulldogs had “so many opportunities” in those two games and had those again against Owensville (1-3). The difference is the girls capitalized on them more.

At halftime, Mexico owned a 2-1 lead over Owensville before eventually opening up the game about halfway through the second half. The Lady Bulldogs had three goals in four minutes from Bailey Christianson, Zoey Norton and Bella Cummings to make it 6-2. Cummings and Marali Herrera each had two goals, while Christianson, Norton and Emily Moppin each had one goal. Claire Hudson recorded three assists. 

“When you’re able to get your head up and find a teammate, and just the fact the teammate is even there, it just shows we’ve come a long way,” Olson said. 

Moppin is a senior who is playing her fourth year in the program. She thought Mexico took a “big jump” against Owensville because the Dutchgirls beat Fatima 8-0 a week ago while the Lady Bulldogs won by one goal at Fatima earlier in the week. Owensville was a team that beat Mexico by one goal twice at the Chris Hotop Classic in Moppin’s career. 

“We gained a lot offensively this year,” Moppin said. “We’ve also become more unselfish. If we personally don’t have a shot, we’ve been able to trust our teammates with the shot so that makes more opportunities to score. We’ve gotten a lot more aggressive too.”

After the game, Mexico talked in the postgame circle about having a goal off a corner kick for the first time in a while. That happened in the 55th minute when Norton placed the kick in the perfect spot for Christianson to knock it in the net. That goal was the first of four unanswered goals by Mexico to close the game.

Olson said it probably isn’t the first corner kick goal in four years for the Lady Bulldogs but did say it hasn’t happened often. The play takes a special type of execution that Mexico has not had so far this year.

“They felt good about being able to finish,” Olson said. “A corner is a very threatening thing to an opponent. A lot of times, we haven’t been able to find a way to put it in the back of the net. We talk about being back side in case it does get through. A lot of times it will pop through and nobody will be there.”

Owensville’s two “quality” shots of being open and with good power behind it resulted in goals, but it couldn’t come close to that most of the time due to Mexico’s back line. Olson said Kenley Jones, Addison Paden, Kaili Cox and Scottie Smith did well.

“Defense has the hardest job,” Olson said. “It’s a difficult position to play because they’re seeing the whole field and guiding things, especially Addison Paden and Kenley Jones as our center backs that have to see everything. We’ve been talking about adjusting a lot and that has even developed in three games.”

It is still early in the season so more adjustments and improvements will be needed, Olson said, and that was evident after the Festus loss. She said Festus is definitely the best team Mexico has faced so far this year and was challenging in last year’s 6-0 championship loss. The Lady Tigers had hat tricks from Autumn Willis and Kaylin Brewer and plenty of “very nice goals.”

“They were amazing shots in the upper 90 (portion) of the goal and not super easy to save,” Olson said. “They had a lot of power outside of the box and were not close to the goal. They’re a good team.”

Mexico can enjoy performances like against Owensville, but Olson said playing a high-quality team like Festus this early in the season shows the team what is next. She said the Lady Bulldogs couldn’t keep up with the ball movement and will have to consult the film to improve.

“If you never play hard teams, you never see a weakness or at least not as much,” Olson said. “When you see weaknesses, you improve upon them.”