It was a busy weekend for the Lebanon High School boys’ soccer team, as the Yellowjackets were forced to cancel Friday’s tournament games and push them back to all day Saturday due to extreme heat conditions.
Lebanon finished the day 0-2 overall, but battled hard in a 1-0 loss against Willard and 3-1 defeat against Sullivan.
“Willard is a very good team and will have a good year,” head coach Matt Jernigan said about the performance. “We played them tight and had a couple of opportunities and just couldn’t get them in the back of the net that game. Chris Kilburn played in goal and did a great job. He was really aggressive and make some great saves. Our defense was outstanding with Jordan Light, Jacob Reagan, Ethan Fisher, Will Hodges and Nathan Falzone. They really took what we had been working on in practice and executed it in the game. I was proud of all the boys effort and focus being the first game of the year.”
In the game against the Eagles, Lebanon crawled back from a 1-0 deficit early in the second half to square the game on a goal from Trent Peneer and assist from Brock Piercy.
“We did not play as well in the second game as we did in the first,” stated Jernigan. “We started well and had a couple opportunities early, but give credit to Sullivan.
“Trent Penner and Josh Rogers both did great up top together. They are freshmen with a high ceiling and we are excited about how hard they play and the skill they have. When you can put them with a speedster like Noah Anderson, we expect to give defenses problems this year as that group develops together.”
Lebanon is scheduled to face Glendale at home tonight (8/29) and will travel next Tuesday to Springfield-Central for another Ozark Conference matchup.
