Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – Addi Greene has learned plenty in her four years as a starter for the Solon soccer team.

Among the traits Greene has picked up over the past four seasons is patience.

Success in soccer, whether scoring goals or winning matches, isn’t always going to come immediately.

Greene learned that over the past three seasons so when Solon scored a single goal in back-to-back losses to open the season Greene didn’t panic and she made sure her teammates didn’t either.

“I just wanted to be the one to step up and say ‘keep your head up and keep going’,” Greene said on Tuesday. “Working together is the main thing on this team and just being there for each other.”

Solon stayed calm and bounced back from its slow start with a 5-0 win at Mid-Prairie on Friday.

In its home opener Tuesday the Spartans patiently put away Williamsburg (0-3) with a second-half flurry and improved to 2-2 on the season with a 4-0 win over the Raiders at Spartan Stadium.

“We are definitely communicating more,” Greene said. “We’ve had a lot of injuries to players already this season which makes it hard to communicate as a team, we’ve talked in practice about communicating with each other, pushing the ball forward and just working as a team and communicating.”

Silvie Hendricks scored twice and Greene and Sofia Ortega added goals as the Spartans posted a second straight shutout win following losses to Regina and 1A No. 12 Center Point-Urbana to open the season.

“It was a big exhale for sure,” Solon coach Amanda Paulson said. “Being able to have our first game at home and come out with a 4-0 win it feels good.”

Injuries to key players like senior Rose McAtee and sophomore Sophia Link have caused Solon to shift its lineup often to start the season.

Those changes have stopped the Spartans from being productive offensive after a slow start to the season.

“We’ve tried new things,” Ortega said. “Every game we’ve tried something new. We have a lot of girls that are playing for the first time and they just keep getting better as we try new things.”
Greene, who ranked second on the team with 12 goals last season, got the scoring started for the Spartans with her first goal of the season.

“I hadn’t had one yet this year and there were two girls in front of me and as soon as I saw the gap I just went,” Greene said. “I switched it to my right foot because I know that’s my strong foot and I just looked for the corner.”

The goal from Greene got Solon rolling.

Hendricks scored twice in the second half and Ortega scored her team-leading fifth goal of the season as the Spartans put the match away with three goals in the final 25 minutes.

“At first we weren’t playing as a team but as we’ve played more games and had more practices we’ve learn to communicate more and how we all play together,” Hendricks said. “We’ve gotten better the more we’ve played.”

Solon takes a two-match winning streak into a match with Class 3A City High (0-1-1) on Thursday.

“We are looking to keep that momentum and energy going into City High,” Paulson said. “We are still going to have a few girls out but we are going to do the best we can.”

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