Miami Trace’s Landon Burns looks to attack during the second half of the match against McClain on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. Burns would score one goal and assist on another for the evening to help the Panthers defeat the Tigers, 7-3.
Tyler Flora | Record-Herald
GREENFIELD —The Miami Trace Panthers (3-3-1, 0-2 FAC) traveled to Highland County to take on the McClain Tigers (2-4, 0-1 FAC) on Tuesday evening in a rivalry boys soccer match, with both schools looking for their first win in the Frontier Athletic Conference.
Miami Trace led 5-1 after the first half and held on to defeat the Tigers by a score of 7-3.
The Panthers got in the scoring column at the 31:48 mark of the first half on a goal from Ian Rayburn that was assisted by Ian Mavis.
Just moments later, at the 28:04 mark, Landon Burns would score on a penalty kick to make it 2-0.
The next goal would come at the 18:16 mark of the first half, this one a goal from Mavis that was assisted by Merrick Montgomery.
Two quick goals would come at the 14:49 and 13:10 marks to make it 5-0. The first goal was scored by Sinjin Smith and assisted by Mavis, and the second goal was scored by Mavis.
With 6:12 left in the first half, McClain would score a goal to make it 5-1, which was the score at the break.
The Panthers scored the first goal of the second half with 20:52 left on a goal from Mavis that was assisted by Burns.
McClain would answer with 21:24 left to make it 6-2, and would score again at the 17:14 mark to get it to a 6-3 deficit.
The final goal of the match came at the 13:52 mark on a goal from Avery Bennett, making it 7-3 which was the final.
Panther head coach Josh Thoroman gave some comments following the victory.
”Whenever Miami Trace and McClain get together, you know it’s going to be a battle from the opening whistle to the final whistle, and it was again tonight. I know it was 7-3 and we got a lot of goals, but as far as momentum, it was really hard to be in a rhythm. That’s a compliment to McClain. We talked at halftime about attitude and effort, and McClain’s players were locked in and had a game plan and they were gonna stick to it. It kind of disrupted what we wanted to do. Our goals came on some individual effort and a few nice plays here and there, but they made it hard the whole game. They did a nice job, they kept battling and tied us the second half, 2-2.”
Miami Trace (4-3-1, 1-2 FAC) will play again on Thursday at home against Hillsboro (4-1, 1-1 FAC).
McClain (2-5, 0-2 FAC) will return to action on Thursday as they host Chillicothe (3-3, 2-0 FAC).
