Lady Mustangs defeat visiting Lady Indians
DODSONVILLE — Though the first 40 minutes of the non-conference match between the host Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs and Hillsboro Lady Indians were scoreless, both teams added points to their side of the scoreboard in the second half with LC winning by a 3-1 score against their Highland County counterpart.
In the first half, the match was all about the two keepers and their defense, with both LC’s sophomore Serena Smith and Hillsboro senior Riley Moberly each making memorable saves. Smith had two first-half saves in a span of 13 minutes that helped keep the score at zero, including a jumping two-handed catch off a header. Moberly also kept LC from taking a first-half lead, with one of her saves coming with under five minutes left in the opening half.
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For the match, Moberly totaled 10 saves, three in the first half, while Smith had six saves, also with three in the first half.
"This was a good county rivalry match, and that is where it all starts,” LC head coach Dennis West said. “Hillsboro is close to us, and it always has been a great rivalry. When it comes to this rivalry, records don’t matter. The Hillsboro girls outplayed us in the first half, and when they scored first in the second half and took the lead, I told the girls this was a wakeup call. That is a credit to Hillsboro and their coaching staff.
“We were saved by some of our underclassmen and had great play from the bench. They really came through. We played better in the second half, as Hillsboro came ready to play and it took us a while to get going.”
At the start of the second half, both teams continued to battle with no goals on the scoreboard. That was until there was 32:46 left on the clock when senior Callan Myers put the visitors in front with a goal off a header for the 1-0 Hillsboro advantage.
From that point on, the Lady Indians scored three unanswered goals, including two from sophomore Kaylee Lunsford with the sophomore kicking the ball through the middle of the net at the 26:39 mark, with the assist from junior Kali Cochran.
LC took the lead over the Lady Indians with Lunsford’s second goal, sending the ball into the corner of the goal for the 2-1 lead with 17:00 left on the scoreboard. LC added an insurance goal with 2:52 left in the match, this time as sophomore Belle Brinkman pushed the LC lead to two goals with the assist from Lunsford.
For the season, Lunsford has seven goals and three assists.
The loss drops the Lady Indians to an overall record of 2-6-2. The non-conference victory gives LC an overall record of 7-2 on the season, with this being their fifth consecutive win.
In two matches last week, the Lady Mustangs defeated Peebles (Sept. 13) by a 5-0 score and West Union (Sept. 15) by a 12-1 score, both being Southern Hills Athletic Conference matches.
Against West Union, LC had four goals from junior Peyton Scott, two goals from Brinkman, two goals from senior Cailee Elam, two goals from junior Riley Creditt and one goal each from Lunsford and senior Jillian Bitzer.
The win over Peebles included a four-goal effort from Scott and one goal from Lunsford.
Next for LC is a non-conference match on the road at Wilmington on Thursday, Sept. 21 at Alumni Field.