On Tuesday night, local rivals would face off for the first time this year under the lights of Jetton Field, as the Paducah Tilghman Blue Tornado hosted the McCracken County Mustangs. While solid defense would be on display from Tilghman throughout the night, the constant pressure from the Mustangs would prove too much to handle, as the visitors earned the key district win by a score of 4-0.
“It’s good [to get a district win]...It’s always a big, emotional game when you’re playing your rival from across town,” McCracken County head coach Michael Wiersma said, following their second win in as many days. “We just had to make sure we still had our legs under us after playing back-to-back games, and we did well.”
The Mustangs would be on the front foot early, finding opportunities on goal often through the first minutes of the match. Even with the consistent pressure from McCracken, though, the Tornado back line stayed solid, turning away chances, including back-to-back corner kicks.
However, with Tilghman struggling to get out of their own half, the breakthrough was only a matter of time for the visitors. With 17 minutes to play, a strong run up the right wing from William O’Neill would end in a perfect ball put through to Mason Atnip, who tapped it into the open net for the 1-0 lead.
“We felt like we were able to go at them wide, and that’s what really got us going,” Wiersma said, looking back on the opening goal. “William did a great job of turning the corner down the right side, and played a really unselfish ball in to Mason for a tap-in.”
With the first goal, the second one shortly followed, stemming from a free kick by Maks Hazel just two minutes. A rebound chance would fall to Ayden Tappen, who made no mistake in finding the back of the net to double the advantage.
“It felt great to get that first one,” Atnip said. “We’d been coming close for the entire game; it felt like it was a matter of time, then it was one right after the other.”
While the Mustangs kept up the pressure late, a number of key stops from Tilghman’s defense and keeper Braden Talbert would prevent the lead from getting out of hand, as McCracken took their 2-0 edge into halftime.
When play resumed, more of the same followed, with Tilghman continuing to hold off a barrage from their visitors. While they would hold out for 16 minutes, the third goal for McCracken would eventually come; a free kick from the edge of the box would be fired into the top left corner by Atnip, making it a brace for the senior.
“I was looking at Braden [Talbert] it looked like he thought I was going one way with it, so I just went the other way,” Atnip said, looking back on his second goal. “I ended up putting it right where I wanted to.”
While Talbert would earn a measure of revenge seconds later denying Atnip a hat trick with an impressive kick save, the Mustangs added another goal late through Joseph Rodriguez. A lockdown defensive effort from McCracken down the stretch would give the Tornado few opportunities to claw their way back in, as they closed the door on the 4-0 victory, their seventh straight clean sheet against Tilghman.
“Our back four’s been playing together lately better than they were at the start of the year,” Wiersma continued. “They’ve been building a good bit of chemistry, and haven’t been giving up too many looks at all to the other team, that’s been good for us.”
With the first of their two matches now in the books, it won’t be long before the Tornado and Mustangs meet again; the reverse fixture at McCracken County is set for September 9. While the Tornado currently have just a match with Graves on the schedule between now and then, the Mustangs will be busy in the meantime, squeezing in four matches in that same span. Next up, another crucial district match against the Marshall County Marshals, this Thursday at 7 p.m.