By DAVID ERSOFF, Journal Sports
Last week was one for the record books as the top seven teams in this week’s Shreveport-Bossier Journal Soccer Coaches Girls Poll were undefeated, going 15-0-1 collectively. That will be extremely unlikely to see again.
Byrd’s Lady Jackets stayed atop the poll, with all eight first-place votes after a successful weekend at the Pineville Tournament.
Byrd went undefeated and unscored upon in Pineville, beating Southside 2-0, Baton Rouge 5-0 and East Ascension 6-0. Coach Lisa Levermann and her staff have the Lady Jackets running on all cylinders. Now the challenge is to try to keep the squad focused with nearly two weeks off. Their next action is in the E.D. White Tournament in Thibodaux Dec. 4-7.
Captain Shreve moved back into second in the poll after a brief drop to third. The Lady Gators also traveled to the Pineville Tournament last weekend. Like Byrd, Shreve went undefeated in the event, topping Denham Springs 4-2, Baton Rouge 2-0 and Southside 3-0.
Shreve played a game this Monday, defeating Parkway 9-0 at Caddo Field. The Lady Gators will travel to West Monroe next Monday.
Although Benton won both its games last week, 8-3 over West Ouachita and 4-1 over Ouachita Parish, the Lady Tigers fell back to third in the polls. Surely the coaches weighed the level of opponents played by Benton and Shreve to come to this conclusion.
Benton will return to action next week, with games against Calvary, Huntington and Loyola. The last matchup promises to be quite a game with both teams playing top-notch soccer at the moment.
Last weekend Loyola hosted a couple of top Division IV teams from St. Tammany Parish. The Lady Flyers won both by shutout, topping Pope John Paul II 5-0 and beating Northlake Christian 2-0. Loyola will return to action next week with games against Neville, North DeSoto (fifth in the poll) and then Benton next Friday.
It is a testament to how well all the teams in the coaches poll did last week that the only blemish, if one counts a tie as a blemish, was North DeSoto’s tie with traditional Division I power West Monroe 2-2. It took a goal in the last few minutes for the Lady Rebels to gain that tie. The Lady Griffins finished the week with a shutout 3-0 victory against Ouachita Parish.
North DeSoto starts back up Tuesday against district foe Northwood, before its big matchup against Loyola Wednesday. The Lady Griffins will also play a single game in the Bossier Tournament against Leesville next Saturday.
Caddo Magnet did not play last week, The Lady Mustangs will return to action next weekend in the Bossier Tournament. The schedule for that event is not set yet.
After only playing one game in the first week of the season, Airline’s Lady Vikings went undefeated in four games this past week, including all three in the Haughton Tournament held last weekend.
Airline started the week with a tight 3-2 win over Ouachita Parish. At the Haughton Tournament Friday night, the Lady Vikings beat Evangel 7-0. They started Saturday morning with another 3-2 victory, this time against Bossier City rival Parkway. Airline completed the weekend with a 5-0 win over Northwood, and earned its first appearance in the SBJ Coaches Poll Top 7. The Lady Vikings will take a well-deserved Thanksgiving week off.
It looks like the middle of the poll will get a big shakeup with No. 4 Loyola soon playing both third-ranked Benton and No. 5 North DeSoto.
With only a single game on this week’s schedule, there will not be a poll next week. It will return Dec. 10.
Week 2 SBJ Coaches Girls Soccer Poll
Rank Team (1st) Record Pts Last week
1 C.E. Byrd (8) 4-0-2 56 1
2 Captain Shreve 5-0-1 44 3
3 Benton 5-0-2 42 2
4 Loyola 5-2-0 33 4
5 North DeSoto 3-3-1 20 5
6 Caddo Magnet 3-1-0 16 6
7 Airline 5-0-0 8 NR
Also receiving votes – Calvary (5)
Contact David at dersoff@bellsouth.net