Friday night The Demopolis High School Lady Tigers’ Soccer team opened its 2004 season falling 8-0 to the 6A powerhouse North Ridge Lady Jaguars in a game that featured wet conditions that only further separated the two teams.

The Lady Jaguars dominated the field throwing everything they had at the young Lady Tigers team and by games’ end the Lady Jaguars had collected eight goals on about 50 attempts, while the Lady Tigers could only manage a score of nil on four attempts.

DHS head coach Dr. Peter Keen said that he knew that this would be a very tough game for his young squad.

“I knew this would be a very hard game for the girls, but in order for us to improve as a unit we must play these bigger teams,” Dr. Keen said.

The Lady Jags got off to a quick start, winning a corner kick attempt that came into the box and was blasted home past DHS goalie Rebecca Henderson.

Three minutes into the match Northridge was up 1-0.

Things would only get worse for the Lady Tigers as they would see eight different Lady Jags score before the referee’s final whistle, but despite it all the Lady Tigers continued to play with heart, which according to Dr. Keen is something that can’t be taught.

“This is a very young team, but they have loads of heart and that is a skill you can’t teach,” Dr. Keen said.

That heart was evident in the second half of play Friday night. Down 4-0, the Lady Tigers could have easily thrown in the towel, but instead opened the second half of play with two crackin’ shots at goal from Megan Keen and Abby Coplin. Keen’s shot was wide of the goal and Coplin’s attempt was shot over the bar, but it was obvious that the Lady Tigers were back in full form.

For the next 15 minutes of the second half the Lady Tigers’ defense stiffened up and held the Lady Jags out of goal, but the 6A Lady Jags would not be held for long. The Lady Jags would collect four more goals before the ninetieth minute of the match.

The Lady Tigers may not have started off the 2004 regular season with a bang, but success this season is quite obtainable according to Dr. Keen. The Lady Tigers have tasted success this year coming from a 2-0 win against Holy Spirit in a preseason game on January 31.

“That was a major win for us especially since they beat us last year 8-1 and they are also in our area, so we got to play two more times,” Dr. Keen said.

Dr. Keen has plenty of faith in his Lady Tigers this season, and with good reason.

He has taken six of these same girls to the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) State Championship at the Cullman Tournament in 1999.

The 2004 team consists of 13 players from Demopolis High School and Demopolis Middle School. The team is made up of one-tenth grader and the other twelve are ninth, eighth, and seventh graders.

The roster for this year’s team includes: Megan Keen, Molly Coplin, Abby Coplin, Margaret Landerfelt, Rachel Tucker, Melissa Padilla, Annie Morgan Pope, Alyse Womack, Loren Neighbors, Melanie Cherry, Rebecca Henderson, Sarah Cole, and Lorain Cherry.