Published: January 27, 2006 03:28 pm            

Cougar soccer team wins title

Decatur — The Newton County Cougar boys basketball team clinched their first-ever division title in soccer last Tuesday night in Decatur with a 3-0 shutout win over Clarkdale.

Newton County controlled possession of the ball for most of the game and used goals by Noah Cook, Daniel Ospina and Austin Scoggin to put away Clarkdale. The Cougars improve to 9-1-3 on the year ahd will host the first round of the playoffs on Tuesday, Jan. 31 in Decatur.



Clarkdale girls 2, Newton County 1

The Lady Bulldogs of Clarkdale clinched the division ttitle with a win over Newton County.

The game was a defensive struggle with neither team getting many offensive opportunities in the first 99 minutes. A scoreless tie remained until the last minutes when County’s Brittany Reed chipped a shot over the Clarkdale keeper’s head for a 1-0 Lady Cougar lead with less than a minute on the clock.

Then Clarkdale pulled its keeper and put all players on the offensive side of the field and came away with a goal to tie the score at 1-1.

In the shootout, Megan Munn and Reed each scored goals but Clarkdale managed three goals to come away with the win.

The loss drops County to 6-5 on the season.



Madison St. Joe 4, Newton County 1

The Lady Cougars dropped a hard-fought game to top-10 ranked Madison St. Joe on Saturday.

St. Joe jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period but a pass by Katie Jackson to Megan Munn gave Newton County a goal to cut the lead to 2-1. St. Joe added a goal just before the half to go up 3-1.

St. Joe dodged a scoring opportunity that would have tightened up the game as Reed connected with Munn on a diagonal run to put her one-on-one with the St. Joe keeper. A diving, finger-tip deflection tipped away Munn’s would-be goal and maintained the St. Joe lead at 3-1.

County keeper Ashley Kirkpatrick played well in goal for the Lady Cougars, turning away multiple scoring opportunites, including two penalty kicks.

The Lady Cougars fall to 6-6 with the loss.

        

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