EDWARDSVILLE – Multiple-goal soccer matches for Kedrick Norwood are old hat.
Norwood had a seven-goal match for Metro East Lutheran against Centralia Christ Our Rock Lutheran in 2015.
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Norwood had the hot hand for the Knights Tuesday evening, bagging five goals as MEL defeated Roxana 6-0 at home in a non-conference match.
“I was able to find the open space and find the corners and put them in pretty easily,” Norwood said. “The defense held up pretty good, the goalie (Thomas Schroader) did well, the midfield got back (on defense).”
“I think the team made a giant turnaround from last week,” said Knight coach Noah Enke. “We've been struggling in the first six games with our defense, and today, I just gave them the challenge, 'I don't want any shots easy. There'd better be someone in front of the ball ready to block it and ready to play some defense.' We just shouldn't be allowing as many goals as we have.
“They did a great job. More of my defense stepped up, and it just wasn't the back four and my (goal)keeper; it was the midfield and even the forwards making forced errors to keep the ball on their end.”
Enke was pleased to seek Norwood holding the hot hand Tuesday. “It's good to see him back in his stride,” Enke said. “He's definitely been missed for the last couple of games. He was getting the same amount of shots (he usually gets), but they were going high or went wide.”
Schroader getting the Knights' first clean sheet of the season was a good thing, Enke felt. “It's great for him to finally get his first shutout of the season,” Enke said. “We missed a couple of opportunities earlier in the season, and that's the defense helping out to shut things down for him.”
“It was to be expected; he's a great kid,” said Shell coach Jamie Futrell. “He's a great kid, he has a great attitude, good teammates around him and a great coaching staff. We've got a lot of things to learn.”
Michael Papka opened the scoring for the Knights in the 16th minute, getting a feed from Norwood and putting the ball past Shell goalkeeper Dawson Klunk. From there, Norwood took over, scoring his first goal in the 25th minute and then upping the lead to 3-0 in 39th minute. The score stood at 3-0 at halftime before Norwood got back to work, Logan McDaniel finding Norwood in the 43rd minute to take the lead to 4-0. Daniel Shimkus, on a free kick, found Norwood for his fourth goal of the match at the hour and finished the scoring when he got loose in the 66th minute.
The Knights had 25 shots at goal, 14 on goal while Roxana had four shots on goal for the evening. Klunk recorded eight saves for the Shells, while Schroader turned back four Roxana shots.
The 4-3 Knights travel to Freeburg for a Thursday match against the Midgets.
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