By Andrew D. Hayn
Correspondent

ARGOS – The Plymouth Lady Rockies defeated the Argos Dragons for the first time since 2012 on a scoring frenzy from senior Madison Smith. Smith had a hat trick in the first 12 minutes of play en route to a 5-1 win over the Lady Dragons.
The Lady Rockies traveled south to Argos on Thursday night to play in the heated rivalry matchup at Eugene Snyder Field. The sun was bright and replaced the clouds from earlier in the day as the kickoff took place just before 7:00. The teams were both coming into their second game of the season and off of a season-opening win.
The action early resembled more of a basketball game as the teams traded goals quickly through the first three and a half minutes of play. The Lady Rockies got the first goal of the night off of a through-ball to Smith just 1:17 into the action. The Dragons quickly answered less than two minutes later with a nice offensive feed from Morgan Dunlap that set up an equalizer from junior Parker Baughman. Plymouth would take the never-ending lead of the game off their second goal of the night, also from Smith, less than 40 seconds later.
Plymouth continued to apply pressure offensively as head coach Stephanie Ferch knew a goal advantage wasn’t always enough to hold off the Lady Dragons after tying them 2-2 in the 2017 contest. This paid off for the Lady Pilgrims as they were able to add another goal with 11:57 off of the first half clock, Smith’s third of the game and sixth of the young season. With less than nine minutes remaining in the first half, freshman Aubrey Vervynckt netted her lone goal of the night and fourth of the year with an assist from Smith. Plymouth headed to the locker room at the break with a comfortable 4-1 advantage over the Lady Dragons.
The second half action for both teams looked very different from that in the first half of play. The teams were knitted tightly together, not spreading the field for the first few minutes of the second half. This didn’t allow either team to move the ball with ease. It quickly changed with ball movement that traveled the width of the field, giving way to four second-half chances and shots on goal for the Dragons without success. Cece Robinson allowed only one goal out of the eight shots placed on goal by Argos in the 80 minutes of action.
Plymouth overcame four second-half offsides penalties and finally got a break on Argos’ sophomore goaltender, Alyssa Poisel. With 18 minutes remaining in the second half, Smith scored the game’s final goal of the evening by a one-touch shot off of a solid pass by Lindsay Janus.
Both teams continued to pass the ball and compete toe-to-toe until the final buzzer sounded. Plymouth had 10 shots on goal, six fouls, six offsides, three corner kicks and six saves by keeper Robinson. Argos fell short although they had seven shots on goal, three fouls, four corners, and five saves on the night.
The rivalry advances to an overall record in Argos’ favor of 24-10-4. Argos will take a 1-1 record on the road Saturday when they play Northwestern. Plymouth (2-0) will look to begin their season with a three-game winning streak when they travel further south on Saturday morning to play the Berries of Logansport.
•PLYMOUTH 5, ARGOS 1
at Argos
Shots on goal:
Argos 7
Plymouth 11
Corner Kicks:
Plymouth 3
Argos 2
Shots:
Plymouth 15
Argos 8