Miami Trace senior Ian Mavis (3) on the attack near the Westfall goal Friday, Aug. 16, 2024.
The Miami Trace Panthers varsity soccer team opened the 2024 season Friday night, Aug. 16 with a home match against the Mustangs of Westfall High School.
On a warm summer evening, the Panthers battled for a successful start to the season, winning, 3-1.
Senior Ian Mavis scored the first goal of the season with the assist by junior Landon Burns. Burns had the corner kick which hit the frame of the goal and Mavis played in the deflection at the 35:58 mark of the first half.
At the 7:40 mark, junior Ian Rayburn scored with the assist going to Mavis.
The score remained 2-0 at the half.
Leading 2-0 is nice and yet, at the same time, it’s somewhat precarious, as the Panthers found out.
Westfall came out fired up and seemed to be more on the attack offensively in the second 40 minutes of action.
Sure enough, after playing a good portion of the half up to that point as the aggressor, Westfall put in its first goal of the season with 13:50 remaining in the match.
At this point, the dynamic changed as the Mustangs were in a position to tie the match at any moment.
As play continued, junior Merrick Montgomery scored for the Panthers with 5:47 left, with Mavis picking up his second assist of the evening.
The match continued with spirited play from both sides.
Mavis later had one more strong scoring attempt, the ball however sailing over the goal.
Unofficially, Miami Trace had 15 shots on goal to seven for Westfall.
Senior goalkeeper Avery Bennett was credited with three saves.
“The Westfall soccer program has improved so much over the last few years,” Miami Trace head coach Josh Thoroman said. “Right now coach Ed Cox is doing a really good job.
“Two seasons ago, they tied us and last season they beat us,” Thoroman said.
The teams are familiar with one another as Westfall was one of the teams that played in a summer league with Miami Trace.
“The kids are familiar with each other,” Thoroman said. “They know us and we know them. I figured this was going to be a hard-fought game tonight.
“We had a good week of practice,” Thoroman said. “There were some ups and downs, but I think we’re better for how the week went. Tonight, the first half was awesome.
“At halftime, they must have talked about a lot of the things they saw, because the second half was close,” Thoroman said. “It was one to one in the second half. They came out hard.
“They sat back and tried to play some defense in the first half,” Thoroman said. “Which suits us, because we’re an offensive team. So, we love playing on their end of the field.
“In the second half, (the play) was on both ends,” Thoroman said. “A lot of soccer people say 2-0 is the worst score to have, because you can be comfortable when you shouldn’t be.”
“I think Westfall came out pretty strong in the second half,” Miami Trace junior Andrew Trout said. “They never saw themselves as out of the game. They came back and they wanted it.
“We turned it on and we kept it on in the second half,” Trout said. “We were able to just battle with them. It was 1-1 in the second half, but we battled with them and we ended up on top.”
“It was a very good game,” Miami Trace junior Landon Burns said. “We came in knowing we wanted to beat Westfall. We lost to them last year and we tied them the year before. This is the third time I’ve played them.
“We knew they were going to be a tough match,” Burns said. “We knew they wanted to beat us, as well. We just wanted it more, I guess.”
Miami Trace’s next match is Thursday, Aug. 22 at London with a start time of 7:15 p.m.
