By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
The high school boys soccer season kicked off last Friday afternoon and the first county team to see the pitch was first-year head coach Joshua Womelsdorf and his West Union Dragons. Womelsdorf takes over a program brought back to respectability by former head coach Silas Mills and the Dragons are looking to continue that push in the right direction.
On Friday, August 14, the West Union boys hit the road for their season opener and their first Southern Hills Athletic Conference outing, crossing the county line to battle the Eastern Brown Warriors. The Warriors are always a solid squad and would be a good opening test for Coach Womelsdorf’s troops on a quite muggy afternoon following a week of storms and inclement weather.
The first half of Friday’s contest was a defensive struggle, with nearly all of the action on Eastern’s offensive end, but the home team was held off the scoreboard by some spectacular saves by West Union goalkeeper Jase Morgan. The Warriors broke the ice in the second half, getting a goal from Jayse Riggs with the assist going to Salvador Olmos, but with 8:38 to play, the Dragons evened the score at one apiece on a penalty kick goal from Ty Pennington. That 1-1 score held up the rest of the way and the season opener for both teams ended in a draw.
The 0-0-1 Dragons were back in action on August 18 with a non-conference trip to Miami Trace and then will have their home opener on August 24 when they host the Ripley Blue Jays in another SHAC contest.