Miami Trace’s Ian Mavis pushes the ball down the field during the second half of the match against Jackson on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. The Ironmen would defeat the Panthers by a score of 1-0.
Tyler Flora | Record-Herald
The Miami Trace Panther boys soccer team (5-3-1, 1-2 FAC) hosted the Jackson Ironmen (5-4, 1-2 FAC) on Thursday in a Frontier Athletic Conference showdown.
The match was extremely physical from start to finish, with both teams playing excellent defense. The match remained scoreless for over 70 of the 80 minutes of match time, before the Ironmen got past the Panther defense and knocked in a goal at the 8:18 mark of the second half to take the lead.
Miami Trace was unable to score a goal over the final eight minutes, and would fall to Jackson by a score of 1-0.
Panther head coach Josh Thoroman discussed the contest following the loss.
“Our boys played well. It was a battle of two teams, you could say a battle of wills tonight. They played their game plan tonight from start to finish, but we also played ours. They are a team that is kind of made up of bigger, faster, and stronger kids, and that is a match up problem for us. I would say that you might call us more of a finesse team right now. They were trying to do what they wanted to do and we were trying to do what we wanted to do, and in the end, we had a breakdown and they got through.”
Miami Trace unofficially had eight shots on goal for the match, compared to 16 for Jackson.
The Panthers (5-4-1, 1-3 FAC) will travel to New Boston Glenwood (2-6, 0-4) on Saturday at 3 p.m.
The Ironmen (6-4, 2-2 FAC) are back in action on Tuesday at McClain (2-8, 0-4 FAC).
