Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – Tali Radcliffe and Rose McAtee have both played enough soccer to know the first half of the first game isn’t going to be totally smooth.

More accurately, those first 40 minutes of the season can be a little bumpy.

Thanks to Radcliffe and McAtee Solon didn’t need much time to smooth things out in its season opener against Regina on Monday.

Multi-year starters Radcliffe and McAtee each scored first-half goals as Solon opened the season with a 3-1 win over Regina in a non-conference contest at rainy and windy Spartan Stadium in Solon.

“I knew there were going to be some rough spots but we all trust our teammates,” McAtee said. “We knew we were going to turn it around.”

Radcliffe scored less than 10 minutes into the game and McAtee gave the Spartans the lead for good with a goal in the 30^th minute.

The victory was the second in a row for Solon over Regina (0-1) and marked the third consecutive season-opening win for the Spartans.

“I think the first little bit was kind of rough honestly but we did a good job of communicating,” Radcliffe said. “We’ve really been harping on being loud and talking and we did a really good job of that.”

A four-year varsity player, Radcliffe opened the scoring when she put away a loose ball in front of the net less than 10 minutes into the season.

The 12^th career goal for Radcliffe gave Solon an early boost.

“Amanda always tells us to pick up the trash which means the goalie might drop it and it doesn’t happen very often but the goal might drop it so if she does you are going to be there to walk it in,” Radcliffe said. “I saw it and I just had to focus and walk it in.”

Regina pulled even when Gabby Sueppel slipped a shot through several defenders from in front of the goal with 23:38 remaining in the opening half.

Solon responded before the half when McAtee scored on a penalty kick with 10:48 remaining before halftime after a foul in the box.

“It took us a while to get settled into the game but once we got settled in and got a little more comfortable playing with the ball at our feet we got aggressive and we started finding teammates and possessing the ball,” McAtee said. “That really helped us.”

Despite operating into a strong wind Solon controlled possession for much of the final 20 minutes of the opening half.

“The first 20 minutes was definitely a little rough but I think we kind of settled in,” Solon coach Amanda Paulson said. “We had the wind in our face so trying to get out of our defensive third was kind of a struggle at times but once we were able to start finding our outside mids I think that worked a lot better.”

Solon held its 2-1 lead until adding an insurance goal in the 70^th minute.

Junior Silvie Hendricks slipped in a shot off a nicely-placed cross from freshman Sofia Ortega with 10:55 remaining to give the Spartans a 3-1 lead.

“We usually play Regina early so starting off with an early win against a good team is always good,” Paulson said. “It’s also home turf and so you want to defend the home turf and hopefully it helps launch us into the season.”

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