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The Bears Prove To Be Too Much For The Cardinals In Season Opener

Nov 20, 2024 10:59AM ● By Jody Reeves

Halloween may be over, but the Cardettes Zombie routine was a definite "Thriller".

The Lady Cardinals kicked off their 2024-25 season with a home game against the Bear Lake Bears.  The Lady Cards have a mix of some new faces on varsity to go with a couple of veteran players after losing some really good girls to graduation last year.  This new group of girls will be battle tested early on this season which will benefit them later in the year.  The testing process began last Saturday afternoon against the aforementioned Bears who are coming off of a state championship with pretty much the same team they had last season.  This was a very tough match up to begin the year with for the Cardinals.  That being said there were some real positives that can be taken from this game as they move forward.  Fortunately this was a non-conference game that won't go against their district record.

As is typical for the first game of the season both teams got off to a slow start.  Soda Springs put the first point on the board by way of a Kempe foul shot giving them a slim 1-0 lead.  Unfortunately, that would be their only lead of the game.  The Cardinals were able to hang close early on in the first quarter before the Bears took control late.  As the first quarter came to a close the Cardinals trailed 7-16.  Soda Springs only managed one field goal in the period made by Gracie Moldenhauer.  The rest of their points came from foul shots where the Lady Cardinals managed to make just fifty percent of their charity shots.

The second quarter was one that the Cardinals would want back.  The Bears added ten points to their total during the period while the Cardinals went completely scoreless.  About the only positive take away from the quarter was the Lady Cardinals did step up their defense and held the high powered Bears to their lowest scoring quarter of the game.  In addition to going scoreless the Lady Cards also saw Moldenhauer pick up her third foul with Courtnee Groening finishing the half with two fouls of her own.  Foul trouble is an area the Cardinals will have to keep an eye on as they are not really deep on the bench.  The teams went to the locker room with a halftime score of 7-26.

In the third quarter the Lady Cardinals came out showing a marked improvement on offense and even more intensity on defense.  As a result the Cardinals were able to match the scoring output of the Bears during the quarter.  Abby Goodin really became a factor on both ends of the court scoring and applying pressure to the ball forcing some turnovers.  When the quarter came to a close the Cardinals still trailed by a substantial amount but felt much better about their performance.  When the quarter finished Soda Springs trailed 19-38.

In the fourth quarter the Lady Cardinals continued the defensive pressure and were able to come up with several steals.  However the length and size of the Bears was too much to overcome and the Cardinals were unable to capitalize on several extra possessions.  With just under three minutes left in the game Goodin who had topped the scoring list for the Cardinals fouled out.  The Cardinals showed lots of hustle and heart in the second half of the game but just couldn't get clean looks against the quick and tall defense of the Bears.  The Lady Cardinals fall in this season opener by the score of 51-25.

Despite the blowout loss the Cardinals showed glimpses of great play especially on the defensive side of the ball.  The Cardinals won't get much rest as they face three games this week.  The first of which will be on the road at county rival Grace.  Check next week's edition for details on all of
those games.  

Saturday’s scoring went as follows, Groening 2, Harris 3, Kempe 2, Goodin 8, Moldenhauer 5, Wood 2, and Rasmussen 3.

Soda Springs 7 0 12 6

Bear Lake 16 10 12 13

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