Young Patriots soccer team hitting their stride

Mudia Ikoba drives with the ball through Hazel Green (Record Photo/Lindsay Vaught)

MADISON- The first thing you notice about Bob Jones girls soccer team is how young they are. Six freshmen are on the roster and three of them start. Miriam Stewart a defender along with forwards Malaika Albright and Mudia Ikoba are getting a lot of playing time as the regular season winds down.

“They are young but talented,” said Bob Jones Head Coach Tony Schroeder. “We have even more coming up. We have several eight-graders playing with our JV team. The talent in Madison is so great they are very skilled.”

Schroeder still has plenty of veteran leadership from team captains Hannah Earnst, Celie Krome, and Katie Bell.

“They are very talented, very goal oriented, and have the girls highly motivated,” Schroeder said. “We are starting to play very well here right before playoffs. We want our offense to go through Hannah, she is one of our strongest players. If an opponent tries to mark out Hannah then we have Mudia, Katelyn Bell, and Ashley Pyle so we are not just dependent on one player so teams can’t matchup against us well.”

Earnst was second team All-State last year.

The team is 7-10 but don’t let that fool you. They are 3-1 in area play and this week won 6-0 over Hazel Green and 4-0 over Sparkman. They split with James Clemens.

Schroeder front loads his schedule with tough competition. “We’ve played one of the toughest schedules in the state. We’ve played the Birmingham area teams that we will possible see in the final four and we played them hard, we don’t play cupcakes. We want the girls to play at a high level so when we get to the playoffs they will be ready to compete.”

Last year veterans like Isabel Stewart and Avery Batson led the Patriots to John Hunt Park and the soccer championships for the first time since 1999. They lost 2-0 to Oak Mountain but the experience was enormously valuable.

Now players like Katie Bell, Earnst, Pyle, and keeper Ashley Felts who played in that game have experienced the pressure and success.

“To make it to the final four was phenomenal, they want it again this year. They aren’t happy to just be there they want to win a game there.”