Coming off a huge road win against Sullivan Central the Elizabethton Lady Cyclones took on their third opponent this week.

Thursday night at Citizens Bank Stadium the Lady Cyclones fell to Dobyns-Bennett by a 4-nil tally.

The loss ended the EHS win streak at three games but a non-conference loss to a powerful foe is no shame. The Lady Indians absorbed an 8-1 drubbing on Tuesday against Science Hill and D-B head coach Blake Rutherford said, “After Tuesday’s debacle in Johnson City against Science Hill it’s always good to get that taste out of your mouth.”

The Tribe got first-half goals from sophomore Brantley Coggins and freshman Madelyn Lyons in the 12th and 39th minutes respectively.

“We didn’t keep the ball well enough,” Lady Cyclones head coach Bill McClay said. “Still, given that, we contributed to three of the goals and were issues that we can fix. We had one go through the goalkeeper’s hands, but that was also something fixable. I always look at the anatomy of a goal, and I can see the stages of it down the line. I have a rookie goalkeeper and she’s learning.”

In the second half, the Cyclones began to string passes together much better and had a few challenges for D-B goalkeeper Cydney Kinkead. Senior defender Abbey Townsend had a corner kick bounce off the crossbar and nearly slip in, but bounced the other way.

Also, junior forward Kalen Shell and Maggie Johnson had a give and go pass that Shell drove into the penalty area and fired a low shot at Kinkead that she handled well.

“Their goalkeeper made a couple of really nice stops,” McClay said. “In the second half we had four legitimate rushes at the goal, and it easily could have been 4-2 at that point. Abbey’s ball from the corner kick bounced off the crossbar and was rolling around, and we couldn’t nudge it in. Then we got behind them twice, but didn’t get a good enough cross from the left side.”

D-B got a goal from senior McKenzie Guest in the 54th minute with an assist on a fine crossing pass from Claire Chapman to make it a 3-nil contest. In the 63rd-minute Cyclone goalkeeper, Baylee Creasy got crossed up on a ball rolling toward her that apparently wasn’t sure if it was sent back from a teammate or a shot.

In that moment’s hesitation, senior Jessica Winkler nudged the loose ball past her for the final tally of the match.

“They are a team that player for player are better than us,” McClay said. “So, they can do things that we have to adjust to, and we need to remind ourselves of that. I wish we had knocked one in, and I tell the girls if you get five chances to score you have to make two of them. All in all I thought we did pretty well. That’s a good team and we stuck with them.”