Records are a funny thing.  Sometimes they sit around for years without being challenged.  And sometimes they fall in bunches. Well, bunches of them fell Tuesday night as the top-seeded Tigers destroyed host Parkview 11-1 to open the Class 4 District 9 Soccer Tournament at Kennedy Stadium. 

Junior forwards Caleb Rodriguez and Chase Holden rewrote two of the most cherished marks in soccer with new standards in goals scored and assists.  Holden had four goals and three assists to push his assist total to 15 for the season.  That is one better than Brandon Lamar totaled during his senior fall in 2004.  Rodriguez set three individual records in his 7 goal, 1 assist outing.  The 7 goals in one game broke the mark of 6 set by Shane Jewett against Camdenton in last year’s district.  The seven goals gave him a season total of 32 and sent him past Jason Foster’s single-season best of 31 in 1997.  And the 15 points (2 per goal, 1 per assist) he amassed moved him past Foster’s single season record of 69 in that category.  Rodriguez now has 75 points this season.    The Tigers also set a team mark for goals in a game with their 11.  Eight times previously they had scored 10 goals in a single game.

But all of the records will seem meaningless if the Tigers don’t do what they expect of themselves: win the district title on Thursday.  Waynesville will play Springfield Central at six p.m. for its first chance to advance to the state tournament.  The Bulldogs edged Lebanon 1-0 Tuesday night.  The Tigers have played in the title game numerous times over the years, but always finished second. 

WHS started slowly Tuesday night and didn’t score against the outmanned Vikings until the ninth minute when Holden took a pass from Hunter Ball, turned a 180 and smashed it past the goalkeeper.  Ball set up the next goal nine minutes later with a through ball to Rodriguez who scored on a breakaway.  After that the flood gates opened: Rodriguez on an assist from Riley King, Holden assisted by Rodriguez, and Rodriguez assisted by Holden.  By halftime it was 5-0. 

The second half opened with another Rodriguez breakaway off a Holden through ball, followed 30 seconds later by a long Holden score off a pass from Louis Tejada.  Holden again assisted Rodriguez and then scored his fourth goal off a King throwin.  Suddenly it was 8-0 with 17 minutes left.  But Parkview gave itself a spark by spoiling the shutout with a corner kick header and the game stalled at that point.  Rodriguez ended things with unassisted goals at 5:46 and 1:17