BELLVILLE — The most highly-anticipated season in recent Madison boys soccer history got off on the right foot Friday night.
Joey Walker made sure of it.
Walker, a junior forward, scored a pair of goals as the Rams opened with a 3-1 win over Clear Fork at the Colt Corral.
Veteran Madison coach Tim Lord welcomed back a wealth of talent from a team that tied for third in the Ohio Cardinal Conference last fall. The Rams were 12-4-1 in 2023.
“If we can keep our heads and stay humble and realize that 11 players instead of two players is how we’ve got to win, I think we’re going to be really good,” Lord said. “We believe that we are.”
The Rams broke the ice in the sixth minute when Mason Jacobus sent a ball into the box from the right wing. The ball ricocheted off a Clear Fork defender and to the right foot of Nate Evans, who sent it past diving Clear Fork goalkeeper Hayden Wilson for a 1-0 lead.
The score remained 1-0 into the second half before Walker got going. He scored from the left wing off an Evans’ assist with 32:02 to play in the second half and added his second about 15 minutes later off a perfectly-executed give-and-go with Ashton Taylor to make it 3-0.
“Our offense is super-strong this year,” Walker said. “It starts with our defense. We have a great defense that supports us and we’re able to get the ball up.
“We’ve played together ever since we were little, so I think that has helped.”
The Colts got on the board on a long-range goal by Sam Swendal, who was celebrating his birthday. He struck the ball from about 45 yards away and into the upper corner with 4:46 remaining.
“At halftime we talked about that. We said (the Madison keeper) was staying out a little bit and (Swendal) has got the leg to do it,” Clear Fork coach Nate Gailey said. “I was super-happy for him.”
Despite the loss, Gailey was pleased with his team’s effort.
“Going into the season we knew (Madison) was one of the top teams in the entire area,” Gailey said. “We knew what we were up against.
“I told the boys I was proud of them. We saw some things that we weren’t doing well two weeks ago that they’ve cleaned up. This is game one. We’ve still got 16 to go.”