The Lady Panthers finished a NorthWood soccer sweep on Monday evening in Nappanee, dispatching the Oregon-Davis Bobcats 14-0. InkFreeNews file photo provided by Chris Knight.

By Keith Knepp
InkFreeNews

NAPPANEE — NorthWood’s two varsity soccer teams had a pretty good Monday evening on their home turf at Wellfield Park. A unique boys/girls doubleheader that featured a different opposing school for each team found the Panther squads outscoring their guests by a total of 21-0.

NorthWood Boys 7, John Glenn 0

In the opening match of the evening, the NorthWood boys played host to the Falcons of John Glenn. The first 15 minutes was sloppy for the No. 8 (2A) Panthers. Offsides penalties negated several scoring opportunities for the home side, earning them the ire of head coach Brad Duerksen.

The game remained scoreless until the 15th minute when senior Sebastian Guillen finally found the back of the net. From that point, the match started taking a better shape for NorthWood. Three minutes later, scoring machine Andre DeFreitas gathered an amazing rebound of his own shot as he somehow found the ball and donkey kicked it past the stunned Falcon keeper.

Guillen would add a penalty kick goal to his season’s tally in the 24th minute while DeFreitas would score seconds later to complete the Panthers’ first half scoring.

Seven minutes into the second half, senior Marshall Beebe found the net to extend the NorthWood lead. Guillen would add one more in the 51st minute and DeFreitas another in the 60th minute to give both players a hat trick for the match. Earning assists on the evening for NorthWood were Kayden Newcomer with two and Chandler Bontrager, Guillen and Beebe with one each.

Senior Andrew Graber and sophomore Trent Iwema combined on the shutout for NorthWood (8-2-4, 2-1-3 in the NLC), which will face a much tougher task on Tuesday when they travel to #8 (3A) Plymouth for their final match in their 2020 conference round robin.

NorthWood Girls 14, Oregon-Davis 0

As the sun went down and the lights came on for the 7 p.m. start of the girls game, the weather felt more apropos for football than futbol. Not missing a beat, however, the girls put up two touchdowns in their victory over the Bobcats of Oregon-Davis, which is fielding a soccer team for the first year in the school’s history.

Three Panther ladies tallied hat tricks on the evening, with a trio of goals each for Caitlin Knepp, Ari Topping and Emma Martz. Two additional goals were added by junior Morgan Jenkins while Abby Miller and Joslyn Miller each was credited with one. The 14th tally, which chronologically was the second one on the scoreboard, was an own goal by the Bobcats.

Sophomore goalie Carly Mast was credited with the shutout for the Lady Panthers.

Like their male counterparts, the NorthWood ladies will face a much stiffer challenge Tuesday when they play host to No. 19 (2A) Plymouth in an NLC tilt. The win evened the Panthers season ledger at 5-5-2, 1-3-1 in the NLC, as they head toward the conclusion of their regular season.