Lady Cardinals Grab Two Home Wins

Last week the Soda Springs Lady Cardinals returned to their home court winning back to back games on back to back nights.  The Lady Cards started things off with a very tough West Jefferson team.  The Lady Panthers had a slight size advantage on the Cardinals and it affected the inside game of Soda Springs in the early going of this game.  With the Panthers blocking several shot attempts inside the Cardinals relied on some outside shooting to gain an early advantage.  At the end of the first quarter the Cardinals led the game by five helped by a pair of three point shots by Gracie Moldenhauer.

In the second quarter of play the physicality of the game really picked up as several players from both teams began to pick up fouls.  In the first one and a half minutes of the quarter the Panthers made a push and tied the game at fifteen points for each team.  The Cardinals put on a press and got mixed results.  While they were able to rebuild their five point cushion they also gave up some easy layups to the Panthers.  The teams headed to the locker room with Soda clinging to their five point lead.

The Cardinals came out of the halftime break with an increased focus on defense.  Soda Springs was able to hold the Panthers to just two points through the first six minutes of the quarter while building a fourteen point lead.  West Jefferson was able to make a push at the end of the quarter breaking through the defense and cut the lead to eleven.

The fourth quarter was a little chaotic for both teams.  Some sloppy out of control play resulted in several players racking up fouls with each team having players foul out of the game.  The Panthers did their best to make the game interesting, cutting the lead to just four points with a minute left in the game.  Rosie Harris and Abby Goodin closed the door on the Panthers hitting some late foul shots and earning the seven point victory for the Cardinals.

Just one day after taking down the Panters the Lady Cardinals played their first conference game of the season when they hosted the Declo Hornets.  Once again the Cardinals were at a big size disadvantage.  This time the Cardinals came right out with a press and some sharp shooting.  The Lady Cardinals opened up the game with a big lead and a huge opening quarter of scoring.  Hitting four three point shots in the quarter led to Soda Springs earning an eleven point lead to end the quarter.

The game would slow in the second quarter for both teams.  The Hornets were held to just five points in the second while the Cardinals had their lowest scoring output of just eight points.

Following the halftime break Soda exploded on offense once again.  Four more three point shots from three separate girls helped the Cardinals score twenty four points in the third quarter alone.  By the time the third quarter ended Soda Springs had nearly doubled up the Hornets score and led by twenty-five points.

Coach Gronning went to his bench for most of the fourth quarter giving the JV players some varsity experience.  The fourth quarter was the only quarter that the Hornets outscored the Cardinals but when the final buzzer sounded Soda Springs had still managed to secure a dominant twenty one point victory in an important district game.

The Lady Cardinals will have a slow week this week as they take on the Pirates in West Side.  That game took place Tuesday night.   

Cardinals 15 11 13 8 47

Panthers 10 11 7 12 40

C.Gronning 7, R.Harris 3, A.Goodin 18, G.Moldenhauer 11, M.Kempe 4, E.Wood 4

Cardinals 19 8 24 10 61

Hornets 8 5 13 14 40

J.Rasmussen 3, C.Gronning 19, R.Harris 7, A.Goodin 8, G.Moldenhauer 18, J.Parker 4, Mumford 2