Lady Lions defeat West Union on senior night; FHS boys fall to WUHS
LEESBURG — Before celebrating their senior night, the Fairfield girls soccer team gained the momentum in the second part of the second half and ran away with a 6-1 victory over the West Union Lady Dragons, Wednesday.
The Lady Lions did so with help from freshman Alexia Sheppard as she scored five goals in the win over their conference foe, with four coming in the final 20:50 of the match.
The Lady Lions’ first goal of the match came from senior Shay Turner at the 37:40 mark, giving FHS the early 1-0 advantage.
The Lady Dragons didn’t trail for long, scoring their lone goal at the 35:50 mark of the first half, for the then 1-1 score. The second goal for the Lady Lions was the first goal from Sheppard, putting Fairfield in the lead at 2-1 with 2:28 remaining in the first half.
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“We were slow to start, and there were moments that were a little bit scary,” FHS girls head coach Paij Shelton said. “At the end of the first half, we started to play better, but in the start of the second half it was a slow start once again.
“We kicked it into gear once we started the goal scoring. It just seemed like it started to take off after that, and I’m impressed with a lot of them tonight.”
In the second half, the match stayed tied with a tough defensive play by sophomore Molly Thackston to get the ball away from the goal on defense.
From there, it was all Sheppard from the scoring side with goals at the 20:50, 16:24, 14:14 and 3:08 marks of the final 40 minutes of play.
Sheppard didn’t do all the scoring on her own, as junior Lyndee Spargur earned four assists and Turner also had an assist for a Sheppard goal. Also with an assist on Turner’s goal was Sheppard.
In between the scoring of Sheppard, FHS keeper Rylie McKinley also had some big stops at the goal, including one with 10:29 on the scoreboard as she leaped in the air, hit the ball with her fingertips and then caught the goal attempt to keep the Lady Dragons at one goal. She also had a strong save at the 12:13 mark, keeping WUHS from adding to their side of the scoring.
As for senior night, seniors honored for the Lady Lions were Turner, Annya Sheppard, Aubrey Drabik, McKinley, Kodi Haynes and Ashley Moore.
“Our seniors are a solid group of girls. They work hard, and to be honest, it will be devastating to lose these girls,” Shelton said. “They are leaders on and off the field and have been so all season. They cover a lot of field and are all over the place. They have goalkeeping, defense, midfield and forward. There will be a lot of spots to fill next year.”
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In the nightcap for the boys match, they lost to the visiting West Union Dragons by a 6-0 score.
FHS trailed by a 3-0 score at halftime.
There were two seniors honored for the Lions before their match against West Union on Wednesday as Quinton Beatty and Garrett Spargur.
“We have two great seniors who have given a lot to this program,” FHS head coach Jacob Alexander said. “They will be missed, and I’m proud of the effort they’ve played with this season.”