The visiting Ozark Tigers’ feet caught on fire late in the first half of their Central Ozark Conference match Thursday night against the host Joplin Eagles.
The Tigers scored four goals in the final 10 minutes and 4 seconds before the half on their way to a 5-0 halftime lead and eventual 8-0 mercy-rule win over their Class 4 District 5 rival.
Five different Ozark players each scored one of the first-half goals and Joplin did not take a shot all night during a match when Ozark absolutely dominated possession.
The Eagles dropped to 4-6 overall and 1-2 COC with a five-match losing streak entering Tuesday’s competition on the road against county, conference, and district rival Carthage.
“It’s tough any time a game ends early like that,” Joplin coach Josh Thompson said. “It’s hard to swallow, but what we talked about here is the growth we’ve had from the beginning of the season to this point right now.
“We were forcing Ozark to do some creative things to be able to create goal scoring opportunities there at the beginning of the game. Everybody worked their butts off for the first 20 or so minutes and stayed really solid. It was a good testament to how much hard work these girls have put in this season.
“What I’m focused on is how much they’ve improved … whenever you’re going up against a team as Ozark, they made it difficult on us to do anything except for play a lot of defense. We spent the whole game sitting back and taking punches. That’s what happened today. There was some attrition. We were missing some people today, as well, so for the tired legs we just put in more tired legs.
“We’ve got a lot to look forward to, I mean we’re moving forward to Carthage next week. We’re excited for the opportunity to be able to take them on. That’s our focus. We hate this right now, but we have to know there’s growth in a game like this (Ozark) and be ready for the next one.”
