The Bethel boys’ soccer team scored early and often last week in their Cross County Conference matchup with winless Tri County North, as the Bees cruised to an easy 9-0 victory. With the win, the Bees ran their record to 4-1-1 overall, and the Panthers dropped to 0-4 on the season.
Evan Hawthorn scored the first two goals of the game for the Bees, as they began to build their lead. Korry Hamlin and Daniel Garcia dished out the assists on the first two goals.
Sam McKenny made it 3-0 off an assist from Elijah Thomas, then Tyler Brueckman scored with an assist coming from Hawthorn.
Hawthorn scored again for the Bees to push their lead out to 5-0 as McKenny picked up the assist on that goal. McKenny assisted the next goal as well, when Brueckman found the back of the net to give the Bees a six goal advantage.
Three more goals were scored by the Bees, as Thomas scored the next two off assists from Joe Miller and Hawthorn, and the scoring ended when McKenny put the ball into the net off a Collin Rust pass, giving the Bees their final margin of victory in the league contest.
Bethel returned to the field last night against Lehman, then hosts National Trail tomorrow night in another league matchup, starting time 7 p.m. On Saturday, Bethel travels to Kenton Ridge for a doubleheader with the Bethel girls’ team for a 1 p.m. start.
*Former Bees standout Kyle Hamlin, a 2012 Bethel graduate and son of the Bees coach Bob Hamlin, was named last week as the Crossroads League Offensive Player of the Week. The Grace College senior played a part in six of the eight goals scored by Grace last week, with three goals and three assists to help keep the Lancers perfect on the week.
Girls Soccer- Bethel’s defense tightened up the final six minutes of the game, and survived a close 2-1 victory over Tri County North last week, to remain unbeaten in the Cross County Conference.
Grace Anthony scored first for the Bees, as she scored in the first half to give the Bees a 1-0 lead. Before the half, Erica Turner added a second goal, giving the Bees a 2-0 lead at the half.
The Panthers scored with six minutes left, but Bethel shut them down in the final minutes for the win.
“We were getting beat to the ball, and we changed some things up in the second half,” Bethel coach Amanda Crase said. “We found a pattern and they really stepped up. Brodi Voight came in and really pulled the midfield together.”
Bethel is now 5-1 overall, 2-0 in the league, plays at National Trail tomorrow night at 5:30.
Bethel Volleyball-The Bethel Volleyball team also earned a hard fought victory last week, defeating Tri Village 9-25, 25-15, 25-18, 25-19 in a conference match over in Darke County on Thursday.
It was the first Cross County Conference victory of the season for the Bees, as senior Tia Koewler and junior Sarah Swisher led the way for the Bees with eight and four kills respectively.
Senior Kaitlyn Parker dished out 14 assists in the victory, and freshman Emily Berkshire had a big day on the service line, contributing eight aces on the day. Leading the way in the back court was Koewler with 17 digs.
On Saturday, the Bees lost two matches at the Troy Invitational, as Bethel was defeated by the host Trojans squad 25-4, 25-7, while coming back in their second match, falling to Graham 25-15, 25-16.
