Clay Archer, Contributor
CHILLICOTHE — During Thursday’s match between Chillicothe and McClain, thermometers showed a high temperature of 91 degrees.
That may have played a role in the Cavaliers’ hot offense all night long.
Chillicothe, playing on its home turf at Herrnstein Field, bursted out of the gate at a scorching pace. The Cavaliers took a 1-0 lead at the 37:12 mark in the first half before Michael Herlihy made it 2-0 with 29:54 left.
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
That hot start led to a 6-1 win in Frontier Athletic Conference action.
Staying aggressive, Chillicothe (4-2-1, 3-0-1 FAC) scored again at the 3:41 and 3:10 marks in the first half, courtesy of Isaac Crawford and Brady Wood. The 4-0 lead was the score at halftime, after a 40-minute period in which Chillicothe outshot McClain 10-0.
“The defense was solid all night. I think we struggled a little bit offensively in the first half,” Chillicothe coach Mike McCorkle said. “We scored two late goals and another was a keeper mistake. So really, McClain held us to one goal for most of the first half. That’s credit to McClain. They played us hard tonight.”
Then, weather continued to play a role.
After a delay that lasted more than two hours, Chillicothe picked up where it had left off in the second half. The Cavaliers scored with 31:03 and 9:01 mark left, while allowing McClain (3-4, 1-3 FAC) to grace the scoreboard at 13:24, producing the 6-1 final score.
“It was a long night with the rain delays but I thought our kids did a nice job coming out after those, still being focused and playing well,” McCorkle said. “It’s real easy to kind of get lost and let your guard down. But we came out pretty focused.”
Chillicothe is back in action Saturday against Washington, a team they beat this past week by a 17-0 final.
“We just played Court House and it was a lopsided score,” McCorkle said. “That being said, we’re going to bring up a lot of our younger guys on Saturday and try to get them some playing time against some varsity competition. Then, we’ve got a tough match against Jackson next week. That’ll be the first time we’ve played them and they’re usually one of the better teams in our league. This will give us confidence heading into that.”