Mount Vernon High School

The Mt. Vernon boys' soccer team had a busy weekend this weekend by playing in the annual River City Classic tournament hosted by Bosse High School. The boys started the weekend Friday night by taking on the Boonville Pioneers. Mt. Vernon was missing two starters on Friday night but still had a strong start to the game and held possession for much of the first half. Sophomore Zane Johnson and freshman Wade York each had scoring opportunities early, but couldn't come away with a goal. Boonville scored about midway through the half, and maintained the lead the rest of the half. In the second half, the already short-handed Cats lost three more starters to injury. This opened the door for Boonville to add two more goals to stretch their lead to 3-0, which ended up being the final score. Despite being short handed the Cat's fought valiantly to the end. Saturday morning the Wildcats returned to action, this time against Evansville Day School. Mt. Vernon again held possession for much of the first half, but spent most of the half with nothing to show for it. Finally freshman Wade York got on the receiving end of a pass from senior Lorenzo Leandri to score his first career goal and to push the Cats ahead. Mere minutes later senior Mason Higginson added his fourth goal of the year off a header delivered from sophomore Zane Johnson. Mt. Vernon led 2-0 going into the break. In the second half the Mt. Vernon defense stayed focus and tight and kept the Eagles from having any good opportunities to score. The back four of senior Hunter Watzlavik, juniors Whitaker Hartman and Isaac Hamilton and sophomore CJ Gentry, along with substitute Derek Lindenschmidt played strong and helped junior Maddux Henson earn his first career shutout. After a short break Mt. Vernon finished their weekend with a fourth game in three days by taking on the Pike Central Chargers. As was the case in the previous two games, Mt. Vernon held the possession for most of the half. Unfortunately the Chargers scored late in the half on a long free kick. In the second half the Chargers stretched their lead to two and held that until about ten minutes left when sophomore CJ Gentry scored his first career goal off a cross from freshman Wade York. Mt. Vernon's momentum didn't last long as they gave up a quick goal to the Chargers that put the game out of reach. Pike Central ended up as the tournament champion. Mt. Vernon returns to action on Monday when they travel to Petersburg for a rematch with the Chargers.