Lady Cyclones move to district championship
Published 4:58 pm Wednesday, October 10, 2018
- Star Photo/Larry N. Souders The Lady Cyclones Kaylen Shell (11) fires a centering shot toward the goal past Central’s Adeline Ensley (8) early in the first half.
Needing a win to secure any more games this season, the Elizabethton Lady Cyclones soccer team came through with a gritty 3-1 win over Sullivan Central. With the win on Tuesday at Citizens Bank Stadium, the Cyclones will travel to Greeneville on Thursday for the District 1-2A championship.
“Greeneville, given their record may not be as good as their state championship teams,” commented Lady Cyclones head coach Bill McClay. “They are still a very, very good team, but we’ll get together tomorrow and talk about it as a team. We will be all tuned in and on point.”
Junior midfielder Cami Davison had a pair of goals in the first half to stake EHS (12-4) to a two-goal halftime lead. The first came when senior defender Cassidy Kaldy came up the home sideline and fired a high shot at the Central goal.
The ball struck the crossbar and came to junior Lexi Brown who made a smart one time pass to Davison who finished the play. That goal came in the ninth minute of play, and in the 16th minute, Davison put a goal past Lady Cougars freshman goalkeeper Jaelyn West from a corner kick by senior Abbey Townsend for a 2-nil lead.
The second half was muddled by an apparent goal by Central that was waved off by an offside call and that was a turning point according to Central head coach Emily Robinette who said, “We just didn’t get good shots in the first half. We had more offensive drive out of us at times in the second half. The goal that was called offside really hurt us because it would have made for a one-goal game at the time.”
Townsend scored on a free kick from 23 yards out that she simply drilled past West for an insurance goal that Central could not overcome. The Cougars got a goal in the 60th minute from sophomore Rylie Patrick in a scrum in front of the Cyclone goal.
“Bailey (Creasy) had the ball in her hand I think and it squirted out,” McClay said. “We started slow tonight even though we scored fairly early, we have had greater starts. But, we won the game 3-1 and advance to the region for the first time in a while.”
