A strong pair of performances  helped the Powell Panther girls’ soccer team open the season to a 2-0 start, dominating Newcastle 8-1 at home Friday before defeating Douglas 2-0 on the road Saturday.

POWELL 8, NEWCASTLE 1

Starting on the front foot the Panthers (2-0) took on the Dogies (0-2) and looked to make a statement early.

Powell got on the board first through Coy Erickson, who fired home a shot after a corner kick that deflected over the keeper and made it 1-0 just under four minutes into the game.

That lead doubled just seven minutes later, when Ava Gilliatt slotted home a shot and made it 2-0.

Less than two minutes later Ivy Agee opened her scoring tally for the season, making it 3-0 with 27:34 still to play in the first half.

Powell continued to press, but was unable to find the back of the net for more than 20 minutes, before Agee got her second with 6:41 left in the half to make it 4-0.

Younger sister Jesi Agee got her first high school goal shortly after, making it 5-0 with 3:39 left.

Ivy Agee capped off her first half hat-trick shortly after, scoring with 1:55 left to make it 6-0 at the break.

“The ladies exceeded our expectations with the way they changed positions fluidly and worked to cover for one another,” coach Danny Agee said. “This can be pretty complicated to learn, so to see players taking risks and talking to one another to try and fill positions on the fly was very encouraging.”

In the second half Ivy Agee added two more goals to her tally, making it 7-0 with 35:36 remaining and 8-0 with 26:07 left to cap off Powell’s scoring.

The Panthers had a number of additional opportunities that were called back due to offside offenses or fouls, and Newcastle got the final goal of the game with 11:12 left to make the final score 8-1.

Powell was able to get in a number of younger players and deeper rotational players, which the coach said will help them in the future.

“We are always looking to build for the future, so we try to take advantage of any chance we get to give players more experience,” coach Agee said. “These players stepped up and played well this past weekend and hopefully they gained some confidence that will make us stronger as we hope to play multiple games in a row at state.”

POWELL 2, DOUGLAS 0

Heading on the road early on Saturday the Panthers took on the Bearcats (0-1) in a rematch of last season’s third place match.

“I know our ladies were sore and tired from Friday’s game as our new style of play is very demanding physically,” coach Agee said. “I am thankful for Callee [Erickson] and the bus drivers making the arrangements that gave us the time we needed to get our legs under us before we had to start warming up. I think that really worked in our favor.”

Throughout the first half end-to-end play resulted in some chances for each team, but Powell had the best chances early on before the Panthers got on the board.

That goal came midway through the first half, when Ivy Agee drew a penalty kick after being taken out on the edge of the box.

She stepped up and placed the ball in the bottom left corner to give Powell a 1-0 lead.

Late in the first half the Bearcats got their chances, applying constant pressure to the Panther defense just before the break.

Powell’s defense stood tall and took that 1-0 lead into the break.

“Douglas is a good group and hard to completely shut down, but we controlled their opportunities to less desirable chances and our keeper (Josie Hallock) stepped up and made the saves she needed to make,” Agee said.

Needing a goal to pull further ahead the Panthers turned to Veronica Kovach, who fired home the first goal of her high school career after a scramble in the box just minutes into the second half to make it 2-0.

“We have not worked on our team attack yet which showed under the pressure from Douglas, so getting the late second goal to kind of seal the outcome was a big relief. A one goal lead is never a good thing,” coach Agee said.

Powell continued to have chances but couldn’t pull further away, and the Panthers held off the Bearcats to earn the 2-0 win.

HOME CONFERENCE GAMES

The Panthers return home this week, opening up their 3A West campaign on Friday and Saturday.

Starting on Friday at 3 p.m. the Panthers will take on Lyman (0-1 overall, 0-1 3A West) before taking on Mountain View (0-0) at 10 a.m. Saturday.

“We are going to keep working on throwing players forward into the attack and how we shift to fill in around this movement,” coach Agee said. “Douglas’ athleticism did not give us a lot of time to react and so a few more games where we could work through our decision making would be great. We also need to be careful as both these teams have players that can score if we make a mistake, so it will be a good test.”