‘This is a big one:’ Fairfield Lady Lions advance to district finals; defeat Eastern

HILLSBORO — It took only one goal and a lot of aggressive defense, but the Fairfield Lions overcame their past in district semifinal games with a one-goal win over the No. 7 seeded Eastern Lady Warriors in their Division III SE District Semifinal game Monday night at Hillsboro High School.

The lone goal for Fairfield was scored by senior Faith Donley at the 36:15 mark of the second half, as she scored the goal after the ball ricocheted off the Eastern keeper following a save for the 1-0 lead.

Later in the game, with the No. 2 seeded Lady Lions holding on to a one-goal advantage, the defense of the Lady Lions continued to step up in big moments, not allowing clean shots to the goal by Eastern. When the Lady Warriors did make shot attempts, Fairfield keeper Claire Newkirk made two big saves, including one with 16:00 left in regulation, diving onto the ball after making the stop to keep the 1-0 lead.

“Claire stepped up, and she solidified the position earlier in the year. She came into the year as a junior that sat behind a senior for two years,” Fairfield coach Jacob Alexander said. “She put in the work this summer and solidified it.

“Also on our defense, just having Avery (Teeters) and Emmi (Vance) back there is huge for us, and we have two freshmen on the outside that are stepping up immensely this year (Landry Teeters and Isabelle Hale). This was Isabelle’s best game of the season, and I’m very proud of her.

“This is a big one,” Alexander continued. “This is one where we’ve been sectional champions four years in a row, and three years prior to this we’ve lost in the district semifinal, including last year to Eastern. This is a big one, especially for the girls, to get over that hump.”

Alexander also spoke about the big goal from Donley.

“It is one where Eastern’s goalkeeper made a great save, and it just ricocheted to the right area,” he said. “We talked at halftime, we had a couple of our shots hit off the keeper in the first half, and we have to follow everything. We told them they have to be passing and moving, and that was followed and we got the goal. We felt we had a couple in the first half that should have gone in, but didn’t go in, and we finally got it.”

Again, for the Lady Lions — who during the regular season had a 2-1 comeback win over Eastern — in the district semifinal victory, they improved to 14-3-1 overall, and the win brings them to a matchup in the district finals on Thursday, Oct. 26 in Lucasville at Valley High School, where they will face No. 3 seeded Minford at 8 p.m. (following the conclusion of the first district final game between No. 1 Lynchburg-Clay and No. 4 North Adams). This postseason, Minford has wins over Peebles (10-0) and Ironton Rock Hill (5-0).

This win was about having some redemption after losing to EHS in the same game last season, and rewarding for Alexander, as he’s coached the seniors since their freshmen season.

“This group of seniors were my first freshman class as the girls head coach, so to kind of build up to this with them has been awesome,” Alexander said. “We want more, we aren’t happy with just the district semifinal win … we are happy to get over the hump, but we want more.

“Last year we didn’t have our best game in the district semifinals against Eastern, and I felt like I left a lot out there for the girls, and the girls felt like they left a lot out there that they could have had, so to come back is nice. We knew this was going to be a tough test, and knew they were going to be a tough team, but the SHAC is the toughest conference in Southeast District for girls soccer, so we are happy to get over that hump.”

Fairfield this postseason has also defeated Piketon by a 10-0 score. The last time the Fairfield and Minford girls soccer programs faced each other was on Sept. 27, 2021 at FHS in a regular-season game, where FHS won by a 6-2 score.

BOX SCORE

EHS    0 0 — 0
FHS    0 1 — 1