Fairfield shuts out McClain on senior night

GREENFIELD — The Fairfield Lady Lions varsity soccer team traveled to Greenfield Monday night and overcame the weather and a wet field to defeat McClain, 2-0 putting a damper on senior night for the Lady Tigers at McClain Field. 

It was a defensive battle and well-played game by both teams that was exciting and hard-fought until the final horn sounded, as every player who played in the game walked off the field completely drained and drenched, leaving nothing to doubt on how hard they all played.

Scoring was at a minimum all game except for Fairfield’s Vivian Henninger, who was able to score both goals in the contest. Her first score came at the 24:16 mark of the opening half, and her second goal found the back of the net with just 17:31 remaining in regulation.

Both teams had several opportunities to score, but great defense and outstanding goal keeper play by McClain’s Leah Lovett and Fairfield’s Meri Jackson controlled the game.

Lovett gave up just the two goals by Henninger, one in each half, and Jackson made several unbelievable stops to keep the Lady Tigers off the scoreboard.

“We’ve had kind of a rough stretch before tonight,” Fairfield head coach Jacob Alexander said. “But we got together as a team and talked, and it really showed today with our communication and trusting our teammates a little more.

“I thought we had a lot more counter-attacking today, McClain did a great job of having the ball down on our end, but I thought we did a good job of containing them and making their shots difficult.

“At the start of the game we were putting pressure on them so they couldn’t get a clean shot on goal, and that really helped Meri (Jackson). From there, she kind of worked her way into the game, and was ready when those tougher shots started coming.

“I’m really proud of our girls, and we’re really happy to come here and walk out with a win because in a game like this you never know what’s going to happen.”

Despite the hard-luck loss, McClain head coach Blain Bergstrom talked about the game and his nine talented seniors.

“This is not what we wanted tonight, but Leesburg is a good team and they have a tough schedule and they’re well coached. They took care of their chances tonight, and we didn’t,” Bergstrom said. “Defensively, we didn’t keep our shape a couple of times, we had a lot of possessions, but like I said they took care of their chances and we didn’t and that’s the game of soccer sometimes.

“I talk to our girls all the time that you need to hit corners and you can’t hit ’em right at her because their keeper has good hands, and she makes saves.”

It was the last home game for nine McClain seniors, and they are: Mylie Lovett, Addison Olaker, Karlee McGlone, Lydia Mootispaw, Bailey Parson, Abigail Marsh, Becca Bergstrom, Leah Lovett and Brie Cummins.

Coach Bergstrom took a minute and spoke about how much they’ve meant to him and his program.

“A lot of these girls have been with me all four years, a couple for three, and two came out this year,” he said. “They’re all excellent players and I’ve coached several of them in multiple sports. We’ve won 13 games this year, the most in school history, FAC champs which has never happened, and the last thing is a gold ball for undefeated league season which is something we’ve never seen in soccer here at McClain (boys or girls).

“It’s been really, really good. Now we’ve got a second season to play, and we’ve got a double bye in the tournament, and don’t play until Tuesday, Oct. 21 at Valley High School against the winner of Fairland and Waverly in the district semifinals.”

Fairfield plays their final regular season game at home vs. Lynchburg-Clay on Wednesday, Oct. 8. The Lady Lions are the No. 1 seed in the SE District and have a first-round bye, then play the winner of Piketon vs. Peebles at home.