Lady Lions rally in final minute to tie Lady Tigers
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
LEESBURG — It took until there were just under 20 seconds remaining in the non-conference match on Thursday night, but the Fairfield Lady Lions pulled even with the visiting McClain Lady Tigers for a final score of 6-6, with the game ending in a tie.
Fairfield (0-1-1) tied the final score with a goal from freshman Cadence Saunders with 18.5 left in regulation to seal the tied score.
Up to that point, both the Lady Lions and Lady Tigers (0-2-1) showed great effort and determination, as both teams were able to find the back of the net on many occasions, with McClain leading Fairfield, 4-3 at the end of the first half.
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“All in all, with the girls in the game, I can’t complain. We’ve just got to stay on the conditioning better. I think we started to get tired and worn out playing doubleheader games, last night and tonight. We’ve got a lot of young freshmen,” Fairfield head coach Sam Spargur said. “We had seven [goals] last night and six tonight. My forwards, midfield, are doing exactly what they need to do. I just hope we get stronger and stronger with the conditioning side of it and see how it goes.
“I’m very happy with the whole team. Like I said, we’ve got a lot of freshmen, but not only that, we never had a goalie starting out the season. Trinity Huff stepped up to be our goalie, and the backup goalie is going to be Molly this year. So far, Trinity in the last few games is doing very, very well for never playing the position. I’m just proud of the ladies. I hope we keep up the good work for the season and see how it plays out.”
Fairfield was first to net a goal in the non-conference match between teams from the Southern Hills Athletic Conference and the Frontier Athletic Conference, with Lyndee Spargur sending the ball past the keeper with 24:40 left in the opening half for the 1-0 lead.
McClain (0-2-1) tied the score up quickly with a goal from Kerigan Pollard at the 20:50 mark of the first half for the 1-1 tied score. Just over one minute later, the Lady Lions built back the lead with a goal off the foot of Spargur, her second of the match, for a 2-1 Lady Lion advantage with 19:03 on the clock.
After Fairfield took the lead, the Lady Tigers were right there to answer with a goal from Haley Peterman at the 18:14 mark of the half for a 2-2 score. McClain then took the lead with a goal by Kelli Uhrig with 11:20 left in the opening half, continuing the barrage of scoring by both Highland County teams for a 3-2 lead in favor of McClain.
Again, the score was tied for a third time in the first half, as this time it was Fairfield who evened out the score with a goal by Ella Newkirk at the 2:06 mark of the half for a 3-3 score. McClain took the lead by a 4-3 score with 43 seconds remaining on the scoreboard in the first half, with Uhrig giving MHS the lead with her second goal of the first half.
Also in the first half, the Lady Tigers had seven shots at goal and the Lady Lions totaled 19 shots at goal in the first half. Fairfield keeper Trinity Huff finished the first 40 minutes with three saves, and McClain keeper Macey McCune had six saves in the first half.
“It was a much better effort,” McClain head coach Shawn Peterman said of the match Thursday compared to Tuesday. “We’ve struggled with a couple little things, and we went into practice yesterday and did some things to try to correct those. I think they did a pretty good job with it today. It’s still not spot-on, where we want it, but I can’t deny the effort that they put into it. To fix those things we talked about, there was a lot of little things that we had some issues with that we fixed from yesterday’s practice.
“We played Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday, so three games and we’ve got another one coming up, so it’s good to get us conditioned for when we have four games in a week. That’ll be good for that later in the season. I think overall, their effort – myself and the other two coaches are very pleased with it. We couldn’t deny the effort they put in today, and they played obviously from start to finish, from buzzer to buzzer.”
The second half was full of action as well as the two evenly matched teams continued to battle under the August heat with the Lady Lions opening the second half with a goal by Newkirk at the 38:41 mark of the half, quickly followed less than two minutes later with a save by Huff on the other end of the field to keep the score tied at 4-4.
Newkirk eventually put Fairfield in the lead with another goal — her third of the match, for a hat-trick — with the clock reading 34:23 for a 5-4 lead.
The Lady Tigers weren’t finished just yet, as they too tied the match at the 14:19 mark off a goal from Pollard, her second of the contest for a 5-5 score. Uhrig then pushed the Lady Tigers in front yet again, this time with a goal at the 12:11 mark of the second half for a hat-trick of her own and a 6-5 advantage for McClain.
Then came the aforementioned game-tying goal by Saunders for what was a 6-6 score.
For the match, McClain’s Grate finished with 11 saves, and Fairfield’s Huff had a total of 15 saves in the tied match. Also for the match, Fairfield totaled 28 shots at goal. McClain ended the contest with 24 shots at goal.
“It’s still early in the season, so I’m hoping this is a precursor to the season to come that we can continue to get better and stronger. The girls, the first part of the season they were a little out of shape, but they said today how they felt so much better and felt they were in the whole game,” Peterman said. “That’s the main thing. I hope from this point on – I’m sure we’ll have some downs somewhere along the season, but it’s a building block to help us continue to grow throughout the season and have a successful season.
“The main thing I want to do is try to get more wins so we can get a higher seed in the tournament and do a little better in the sectionals.”
Fairfield (0-1-1) tied the final score with a goal from freshman Cadence Saunders with 18.5 left in regulation to seal the tied score.
Up to that point, both the Lady Lions and Lady Tigers (0-2-1) showed great effort and determination, as both teams were able to find the back of the net on many occasions, with McClain leading Fairfield, 4-3 at the end of the first half.
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“All in all, with the girls in the game, I can’t complain. We’ve just got to stay on the conditioning better. I think we started to get tired and worn out playing doubleheader games, last night and tonight. We’ve got a lot of young freshmen,” Fairfield head coach Sam Spargur said. “We had seven [goals] last night and six tonight. My forwards, midfield, are doing exactly what they need to do. I just hope we get stronger and stronger with the conditioning side of it and see how it goes.
“I’m very happy with the whole team. Like I said, we’ve got a lot of freshmen, but not only that, we never had a goalie starting out the season. Trinity Huff stepped up to be our goalie, and the backup goalie is going to be Molly this year. So far, Trinity in the last few games is doing very, very well for never playing the position. I’m just proud of the ladies. I hope we keep up the good work for the season and see how it plays out.”
Fairfield was first to net a goal in the non-conference match between teams from the Southern Hills Athletic Conference and the Frontier Athletic Conference, with Lyndee Spargur sending the ball past the keeper with 24:40 left in the opening half for the 1-0 lead.
McClain (0-2-1) tied the score up quickly with a goal from Kerigan Pollard at the 20:50 mark of the first half for the 1-1 tied score. Just over one minute later, the Lady Lions built back the lead with a goal off the foot of Spargur, her second of the match, for a 2-1 Lady Lion advantage with 19:03 on the clock.
After Fairfield took the lead, the Lady Tigers were right there to answer with a goal from Haley Peterman at the 18:14 mark of the half for a 2-2 score. McClain then took the lead with a goal by Kelli Uhrig with 11:20 left in the opening half, continuing the barrage of scoring by both Highland County teams for a 3-2 lead in favor of McClain.
Again, the score was tied for a third time in the first half, as this time it was Fairfield who evened out the score with a goal by Ella Newkirk at the 2:06 mark of the half for a 3-3 score. McClain took the lead by a 4-3 score with 43 seconds remaining on the scoreboard in the first half, with Uhrig giving MHS the lead with her second goal of the first half.
Also in the first half, the Lady Tigers had seven shots at goal and the Lady Lions totaled 19 shots at goal in the first half. Fairfield keeper Trinity Huff finished the first 40 minutes with three saves, and McClain keeper Macey McCune had six saves in the first half.
“It was a much better effort,” McClain head coach Shawn Peterman said of the match Thursday compared to Tuesday. “We’ve struggled with a couple little things, and we went into practice yesterday and did some things to try to correct those. I think they did a pretty good job with it today. It’s still not spot-on, where we want it, but I can’t deny the effort that they put into it. To fix those things we talked about, there was a lot of little things that we had some issues with that we fixed from yesterday’s practice.
“We played Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday, so three games and we’ve got another one coming up, so it’s good to get us conditioned for when we have four games in a week. That’ll be good for that later in the season. I think overall, their effort – myself and the other two coaches are very pleased with it. We couldn’t deny the effort they put in today, and they played obviously from start to finish, from buzzer to buzzer.”
The second half was full of action as well as the two evenly matched teams continued to battle under the August heat with the Lady Lions opening the second half with a goal by Newkirk at the 38:41 mark of the half, quickly followed less than two minutes later with a save by Huff on the other end of the field to keep the score tied at 4-4.
Newkirk eventually put Fairfield in the lead with another goal — her third of the match, for a hat-trick — with the clock reading 34:23 for a 5-4 lead.
The Lady Tigers weren’t finished just yet, as they too tied the match at the 14:19 mark off a goal from Pollard, her second of the contest for a 5-5 score. Uhrig then pushed the Lady Tigers in front yet again, this time with a goal at the 12:11 mark of the second half for a hat-trick of her own and a 6-5 advantage for McClain.
Then came the aforementioned game-tying goal by Saunders for what was a 6-6 score.
For the match, McClain’s Grate finished with 11 saves, and Fairfield’s Huff had a total of 15 saves in the tied match. Also for the match, Fairfield totaled 28 shots at goal. McClain ended the contest with 24 shots at goal.
“It’s still early in the season, so I’m hoping this is a precursor to the season to come that we can continue to get better and stronger. The girls, the first part of the season they were a little out of shape, but they said today how they felt so much better and felt they were in the whole game,” Peterman said. “That’s the main thing. I hope from this point on – I’m sure we’ll have some downs somewhere along the season, but it’s a building block to help us continue to grow throughout the season and have a successful season.
“The main thing I want to do is try to get more wins so we can get a higher seed in the tournament and do a little better in the sectionals.”