Lady Indians advance to sectional finals

The Hillsboro Lady Indians are back to winning in the postseason, like they've done year-in and year-out for the past few seasons, beginning this year's tournament with an 8-0 victory over South Central Ohio League foe Washington.

Hillsboro's win on their home field leaves them with a sectional final match this Thursday in Chillicothe, as they will face the SCOL champion Lady Cavaliers at Herrnstein Field. In their two previous games with CHS, the Lady Indians lost by scores of 3-1 (at HHS) and 1-0 (at CHS).

Last season in the district round, Hillsboro defeated Chillicothe, 1-0 for the district championship, as the HHS program has won the past three district championships.

"When we last played Chillicothe, I thought it was a pretty evenly played game," Hillsboro head coach Jeremy Ratcliff said. "We made one mistake last time, and they (CHS) capitalized on it, because they are a good team and that's what they do.

"We have to be able to capitalize on their mistakes, and in that last game, we just didn't put the ball in the back of the net. Again, we made just one glaring mistake, and that was the difference."

In Hillsboro's victory over the Lady Blue Lions Tuesday, it was the third time this year that HHS has gained a win over Washington as they won the previous two meetings by scores of 11-1 (at HHS) and 6-0 (at WSHS). This season, the Lady Indians outscored the Washington team 25-1 in their three matches combined.

Hillsboro's victory leaves them with an overall mark of 10-4-3 on the season, while Washington ends their year at 2-14-1.

The Lady Indians (who have reached the regional final the past two seasons) wasted no time taking care of business in their home match Tuesday, with Hope Tira (assisted by Ashleigh Baucom) scoring the first goal with 34:33 left on the scoreboard on the sunny but chilly fall evening.

As the first half continued, Madi Marsh, Tira, Cadence Myers and Mallory Sluss all added to the first-half lead of the Lady Indians, entering halftime with a 6-0 advantage.

"I was really pleased with how the girls came out and played, especially in the first half," Ratcliff said. "We've been a slow starting team this season, but we've wanted to focus on getting a better start, and I felt the girls did that."

Following the aforementioned first goal by Tira, it was Marsh who pushed the Lady Indians ahead with a two-goal lead (32:27) as she was assisted by Myers. From there, with a bit of flair, this time the Lady Indians' goal scored off a header by Tira, who was assisted with a kick from Myers for a 3-0 lead with 19:40 left on the first-half clock.

The scoring continued with Myers netting a goal, kicking the ball off a Lady Blue Lions player for the point at the 12:46 mark of the opening half. That was followed with Marsh scoring her second goal of the evening, as this one floated in the air and over the leaping Washington keeper to the middle of the net. The goal at 9:38 by Marsh gave the host Hillsboro team a 5-0 lead.

Hillsboro's final goal of the first half came off the foot of Sluss with 1:21 left on the scoreboard.

In the second half, the Lady Indians added goals from Lillian VanZant (13:54) and Mallori Crum (.54) to seal the eight-goal victory. At goal for the shutout win was Carly Meyer, who finished with one save.

"Last year, we had a decent run in the tournament run after a 10-6 regular season, and tonight was a good indicator they are ready and hungry,” Ratcliff said. “We still have a stiff test on Thursday with Chillicothe, but we know what Chillicothe will bring to them.

"We couldn't overlook this game, because the Washington C.H. kids played hard. We had to come out and handle our business, and that's what we did."