Stone girls rout White County

Emma Thompson ruled the pitch last week, scoring four goals to help the Stone Memorial Lady Panthers to a surprisingly easy home 8-0 soccer shutout of White County. After leading 2-0 at the half, Stone scored six goals in the second half to secure the win.

“I think we played great,” said Stone coach Tyler Rutherford. “White County threw a bit of a different look at us, packing players in, and that kind of thing. It was a little frustrating for us for a little bit, trying to figure that out. But once we got it figured out, overall, we obviously did pretty well.”

Thompson put the Lady Panthers on the board midway through the first half, bending the net in the 24th minute of play. Just six minutes later, Shelby Vitous made it 2-0 with a goal just before halftime.

“Defensively, I mean I don’t know what else we could ask for,” Rutherford said.

“We came in not really knowing what we were going to go up against. We’ve got two goalkeepers who are pretty new to the goalkeeping game, and it is great feeling for them to be able to play to a shutout.”

Stone Memorial delivered the knockout punch early in the second half with three goals within the first 9 minutes.

Thompson scored in the 47th minute of action to make it 3-0. After Leah Burgin scored less than 60 seconds later, Thompson came back with another goal in the 49th minute to push the lead to 5-0.

The Lady Panthers’ defense continued to get better as they picked up their second shutout of the season.

“The defense is pretty solid,” Rutherford said.

“We’ve got some veterans back there that are used to this kind of thing, but even for them it is still a pretty good confidence builder.”

Thompson scored again in the second half, and Stone put in two more goals late in the period from Alina Thompson and Casey Hepburn for the final 8-0 margin.

“I think we have a lot of potential. I think we have great potential to be competitors at the district level and maybe beyond,” Rutherford said. “It just depends on how we show up and how we play our game.”

Stone Memorial, 2-4 on the year, will hit the road this week for a game at Watertown Thursday. Kickoff is 6:30 p.m.

“We probably just need to work on our touches, honestly,” Rutherford said.

“We’re doing a lot better with some of the other areas that we’ve identified that weren’t going so well. So, I think if we can just keep getting better with our first touches, and finding passes when we need to find them, we’ll be OK.”

The Stone Memorial girls rolled over White County, 8-0

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