It was a successful opening week for the Durant High soccer teams as the Lady Lions split a pair of contests while the Lions quickly equaled last year’s win total with two victories.
The Lady Lions topped Madill (4-1) on opening night before suffering a 2-1 loss at Duncan that evened their early record.
Coach John Wilmoth’s boys squad knocked off Madill (3-2) in a penalty kick shootout and followed up with a 3-1 triumph on the road at Duncan.
Each team is slated to close out the pre-Spring Break portion of the schedule on Thursday at Ada.
Girls
Ryan Cook’s unit wasted little time in taking the lead for good in his debut as head coach as Marigold Moore scored on a breakaway just 29 seconds into the contest.
Kira Hoffman fired in another shot from roughly 30 yards out over the head of the Madill keeper to tack onto the advantage with 26:41 left in the first half.
That’s how it remained through intermission as Madill controlled the possession in the early stages of the second half before cutting the Lady Lion lead in half on a goal with just over 26 minutes remaining.
Durant was not finished however, pumping through a pair of goals to put it out of reach. The first was Hoffman’s second score of the night as she cashed in a Kamryn White assist. White got on the scoreboard herself with the final tally of the game.
In the Duncan matchup the Lady Lions came out very slow, spotting the hosts a 1-0 first half advantage.
Cook’s unit came out with renewed energy after the break, punching in a Hoffman goal off an outstanding corner kick by Kirsten Collins.
A Durant miscue however resulted in another Duncan score, which proved to be the final margin as defenses took over down the stretch.
Boys
The opener was a back and forth affair with the Lions converting for the first score of the night when Otto Baskin blasted through a shot off a Konnor Shenas centering pass.
Madill countered with a goal only three minutes before half to tie things and added a second nearly 20 minutes into the second half to put Durant on the ropes. The Lions responded with 11:01 to play when Joseph Flores headed in a deflection from right in front of the goal.
That forged a 2-2 deadlock which held the rest of regulation to force the penalty kick shootout.
Durant connected four times in the extra frame while Leland Hardwick provided a pair of saves to turn away the Wildcats. Flores scored the first on a slicing shot through the left side and Shenas added the second with a fake left and punch into the right side of the goal.
Baskin followed a similar pattern for the third DHS goal with the fourth coming from Luis Amaya into the left side of the net.
In the Duncan game, Tyler Rhodes punched across one goal and Flores added a pair as Hardwick was dynamite in net with 11 saves for the game.
“It was a nice week to start off the season,” Wilmoth said. “I was really happy to see our defense playing well in matching our win total last year. I am really proud of the boys.”
