The Moberly Spartans Soccer team invited their long time rival the Mexico Bulldogs to town last Tuesday for some NCMC action. The Spartans had their way with Mexico for the majority of the match en route to a 7-1 victory.

It only took 2 minutes for Moberly to get on the board when Jordan Taylor pounded the first goal into the back of the net. With only five minutes gone by since Moberly’s first goal another scoring opportunity was capitalized on by Senior forward Mitch Westhues who was assisted by Audi Weis with a long pass to Mitch directly in front of the goal and was able to double the Moberly lead 2-0. A third Spartan got on the board in the first half in Ethan Roth who was assisted yet again by Audi Weis in the 31st minute. Everything that had unfolded to this point had made it seem that the Spartans were well on their way to a shutout but in the final minute of the first half a bouncing ball hit the hand of a Moberly defender inside the penalty box giving Mexico a penalty kick, with :06 seconds remaining the Mexico Bulldogs got on the board and the half time score read 3-1.

In the second half Moberly kept the ball on their side of the field for the majority of the remainder of the game and were able to score four more times before the final whistle. Buddy Roberts in the 42nd minute assisted by Britton Ellison, Mitch Westhues in the 45th minute assisted by Buddy Roberts, 62nd minute Audi Weis assisted by Alex Egley, and Buddy Roberts again in the 64th minute assisted by Billy Hackett.

Moberly took 21 shots, 13 on goal and scored 7, Mexico got off 6 shots, 3 of them on goal with their one penalty shot scored. The junior varsity match ended in a 2-2 tie against Fatima Junior Varsity, goals by Tim Wiesemann and Nick Gamble.

Last night the Moberly Spartans played host to the Marshall Owls for their senior recognition night. Moberly is graduating seven seniors this year including goal keeper Caleb Marquis, midfielder Ian Sosniecki, midfielder Britton Ellison, Midfielder Tim Wiesemann, Forward Mitch Westhues, Defender Dusty Brockmeier and defender Nick Gamble.

Moberly came into the game knowing that they had a tough competition in Marshall losing their last match 1-0. For the majority of the first half the teams would battle back and forth for possession. Moberly did well to not give away the ball and to prevent Marshall from getting into position to score. The score remained tied at 0-0 until late in the first half when Marshall managed to net their first goal of the game giving them the lead. Shortly after senior Dusty Brockmeier knotted the game up in the 32nd minute with an assist by Buddy Roberts then five minutes later Moberly extended their lead when an assist by midfielder Jordan Taylor to Mitch Westhues gave Moberly a 2-1 lead at half.

After halftime it was more of the same as in the first half, neither team could seem to get an edge over the other. The minutes ticked by as the score remained 2-1 until the 72nd minute when Buddy Roberts broke away from the defenders and got the goal keeper one on one and buried the ball in the back of the net extending the Spartan lead 3-1. Marshall attempted a comeback adding a goal in the final 4 minutes of the game but was unable to overcome the 3-2. Moberly moves to 17-4 on the year and will face Mexico this Thursday to try and clinch their share of the District title.