The Stone Memorial High School soccer team traveled to Oneida for their season opener this past Tuesday and took on the Indians on a field that was soggy and grew increasingly muddy as the contest progressed despite the efforts of the Oneida soccer boosters.

Stone went on the offensive immediately on the way to a 4-1 win and Sammy Fuentes scored the first goal of the season off an assist from Mason Fox and a precise pass by Kyle Miller to Fuentes led to his second goal and a 2-0 Panther lead at halftime.

The Oneida Indians scored early in the second half and that score was followed by two quick goals by Stone as Fuentes achieved his hat trick goal 15 minutes into the period and Fox scored his first goal of the season soon after. Fuentes assisted Fox by pulling the keeper out of goal and passing to Fox who was wide open.

Fox and Fuentes scored all the Panther goals but, according to Coach Geir Bergvin their goals were made possible by the control shown by the defense and midfield. He commented, "The team is looking very good. Though the team looked eager in the first half, the players and I had a very good conversation at halftime and made some adjustments to begin the second period and this paid dividends as the game progressed." Bergvin added, "Jacob Butler was voted our MVP at the end of the game."

The Panthers hosted Tellico Plains on Thursday evening and the hosts scored early and often as they managed to win by a score of 8-0. Bergvin said, "Any win is certainly good but though we won handily this win was a little sloppy."

The Panther squad made the evening somewhat easy for their goalkeeper Cal Turner by keeping the pressure on and the ball was on the Tellico end of the field for a large part of the game with Stone's Mario Martinez scoring the initial goal of the contest less than five minutes into the match. The Panthers' next goal was scored by Fuentes off an assist by Fox and he scored again a few minutes later after taking the ball away from Tellico and the Panthers led 3-0 at halftime.

The second period began the same way as Fox scored at the 29:18 mark for a 4-0 Stone lead. Fuentes managed his second hat trick of the season soon after with Fox again providing the assist.

The Stone squad kept the pressure on with Jonathan Villalobos and Ezequiel Sanchez showing their dribbling and passing skills and the defense thwarted each attempt by Tellico to get near the Panther goal. Butler added a goal at the 14:20 mark to increase the margin to 6-0 and Fox added his second goal of the evening for a 7-0 lead. A long pass from Miller to Fuentes resulted in Stone's final goal of the evening in the 8-0 win.

The Panthers travel to Oliver Springs for a Tuesday evening contest.

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