Things have just been clicking recently for the Tahlequah girls soccer team.
This season, the Lady Tigers are 6-2 — their best start since 2018 — and recently run-ruled a team for the first time in coach Scottie McGee’s tenure. Monday, April 1, the Lady Tigers played a complete game for a 10-0 win over McLain.
McGee was looking to get the offense rolling with the district season looming.
“All three levels – the forwards, midfields and defense – scored in the game, and that is what we are looking for,” McGee said. “Going forward in districts, they will have time to look at tape and mark up our best players, so we need production from players that are unexpected.”
McGee sees a reason for the Lady Tigers playing so well on offense. During the past two seasons, the Lady Tigers played in 6A against bigger and tougher schools.
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Tahlequah’s Samanta Santana tries to get the ball back from a defender in a recent game.
Over that two-year period, the Lady Tigers focused on a lot of defense. Now that they are back to 5A, that defense has stuck around – with an added boost in offense, thanks to a more experienced roster.
“We have had troubles getting offense going after two years in 6A,” McGee said. “We were very defensive-minded; we will flow back to defense and put 10 in the box. We are trying to break out of that and we have the talent to do that. This was a confidence builder, not just for the starters but the [bench].”
Heading into the game, McGee thought the Tigers had a strong chance of taking down MHS, but didn’t know the team was going to run rule its opponent. Despite ending the game early, there were only four minutes left on the clock, so McGee was satisfied his team played most of it.
“We didn’t come out trying to 10-0 them; we had a game plan,” McGee said. “We wanted to score as organically and not just pepper them. We worked on our passing; we wanted to work on stuff for districts. We’re trying to get ready for districts and develop more than just the top three scorers going into district play.”
Before the Lady Tigers dominated MHS, they competed in the Sapulpa Tournament. After losing the opening game to Glenpool, the Lady Tigers took down Christian Heritage, 2-1, and Stilwell, 2-0, for the consolation championship.
“I saw that we were one of the better teams and we could have done better,” McGee said. “We beat Glenpool in the preseason, but they brought in another player. We got into yellow card issues; we needed to be a little more disciplined. We rebounded really well in the last two games.”
Again, SHS the Lady Tigers were moving the ball up and down the field with ease. McGee went as far as to say it was the best passing he’s seen from his team. THS has been dropping back Reese Cowart, and that’s opening up the passing game.
“Reese, our senior caption, is playing fullback, and we have been telling them to be more aggressive and move up, and she did that,” McGee said. “We had her go up 10-30 yards to involve her in the offseason. That also released our wing for passing, and we had a great passing attack for 15 minutes. We are a second-half team but we are trying to break the habit. We play really strong after halftime but come out too casual in the first half.”
As it’s scheduled, the Lady Tigers are set to start district play against Midwest City in Oklahoma City, but McGee guesses the incoming rain is going to cancel the contest.
