CARTHAGE, Mo. — The Carthage Tigers officially broke free of the funk from their 3-2 loss Sept. 13 against Neosho with a commanding 7-0 win Tuesday over Central Ozark Conference rival Webb City at David Haffner Stadium.
Carthage scored three goals in the first half and four in the second, highlighted by a stretch of three goals in two minutes in the middle of the second half, and senior goalkeeper Julio Lopez Merida and the Tigers preserved a shutout victory.
“That’s always the key, even in games that are a blowout, if you let that goal in, it does bring in a little bit of disappointment,” Carthage coach Jacob Osborne said. “I was happy to see us finish it (a shutout) off.
“Our loss last Tuesday, we had a lot of self-inflicted mistakes that Neosho capitalized on, and we were still licking our wounds a little bit on Thursday (at home against Springfield Central). We didn’t give a performance that we were capable of but were still able to squeak out the win (3-2). I think it left a bad taste in everybody’s mouth on our team that we didn’t we show up like we should have on Thursday. We made sure that we were here today, and that’s what made the difference.”
Silas Laytham and Welle Welle scored the first two goals, then senior Jorge Mendez Lopez connected on the goal that broke the Cardinals’ back only 38.7 seconds before halftime.
Welle started the outburst with his second and third goals for a hat trick, fitting since his third goal required some fancy dribbling with his head before he put one past Webb City goalie Connor Black.
Welle did not start Tuesday because he was under the weather, but one could never tell by his performance on the field against Webb City.
Aldo Sanchez Cancinos finished off the three goals in two minutes and Bryan Ordonez closed out the scoring late in the 78th minute.
Carthage took 32 more shots than Webb City on the night, 40-8.
The Tigers, 6-2 overall and 3-1 COC, return home Thursday for a match against non-conference opponent McDonald County.
“We have Mac County on Thursday and then Carl Junction on Tuesday,” Osborne said. “Then, next weekend is where we’ll see Lee’s Summit West, which is a new district opponent for us. We’re going to play them at Kickapoo, so big games are coming. Our October schedule is ridiculous, plain and simple. There’s no let-up in October. We have to play those teams to get ready for the district that we’re in.”
Carthage’s schedule in October includes Joplin (Oct. 4), Kickapoo (Oct. 6), St. Michael the Archangel (Oct. 7), Ladue Horton Watkins (Oct. 8), Ozark (Oct. 11), Vianney (Oct. 14), Springfield Catholic (Oct. 20), Rockhurst (Oct. 22), and Nixa (Oct. 25).
Webb City, meanwhile, dropped to 4-5 overall and 1-3 COC entering Thursday’s non-conference match against College Heights.
