A quick start helped propel Circleville to a 6-0 win over World Harvest Tuesday night.
Liam Goodhart scored 15 minutes in and Kaden Paxton added another three minutes later. Those were assisted by Justin Darnell and Jackson Hatfield, respectively.
CHS had another quick burst a few minutes later with Payden Dillon and Paxton scoring at the 26- and 29-minute marks. Donovan Dillon and Luke Stout had the assists on those goals.
Luke Stout had two more assists in the second half. The first aiding Payden Dillon’s second goal of the night and the other helping Ashton Groff find the back of the net.
“Our defense of sophomore Ashton Groff, sophomore Zack Bell, senior Slater Search, senior Donovan Dillon and junior Greyson Buckley, along with sophomore goalie Will Flory, were able to get the shutout,” coach Evan Callihan said.
Circleville’s defense did such a good job keeping WH out of scoring position that Flory needed to make only two saves on the night.
“It was our first game after a 10-day break, so we wanted to try to get out to a fast start to get us going. I thought we possessed the ball well in the first half and created many scoring opportunities,” Callihan said. “Junior Jackson Hatfield really set the tone for us tonight with his energy and effort. When he entered the game, we scored within 15 seconds of him being in. He made a few hustle plays that led to a scoring opportunity right away that freshman Kaden Paxton was able to finish.
“Jackson has worked relentlessly this season going back to even the spring when we first began workouts. He is a dedicated student-athlete who just puts his head down and works hard and he has a winning attitude and winning habits and that made a huge impact for our team tonight.
“Freshman Kaden Paxton was able to finish off two really nice goals and he has stepped up for us as a freshman playing a lot of varsity minutes,” Callihan added. “Luke Stout created a lot of our scoring opportunities adding three assists and I’m proud of our team and our defense for getting a shutout. We try to really emphasize defense as a program and our guys were solid all night tonight.”
The Tigers return to the pitch Thursday hosting Lucasville Valley.
“We still have work to do and there’s still a lot of room for growth for us,” Callihan said. “We have a lot of games coming up here in the next few weeks, so we have to keep improving and that begins with our work ethic and attitude.”
