Pryor scores 100th career goal; McClain advances in district tournament 

GREENFIELD — The No. 2 seeded McClain Lady Tigers soccer team opened tournament play Thursday night in Greenfield with a 5-1 Division IV SE District Quarterfinal win over No. 10 seeded New Lexington.

It was also a historic night for McClain senior Paisley Pryor who scored the 100th goal of her high school career at the 29:58 mark of the second half. Pryor scored all three of the Lady Tigers’ goals in the opening half giving her the hat-trick, and staking McClain to a 3-0 halftime advantage.

Pryor joins Taylor Polley and Kerigan Pollard who are the other two McClain girls soccer players to achieve the 100 or more goals milestone.

“Paisley (Pryor) scored seven goals in our last two games and has played really well for us lately, especially in those last two,” McClain head coach Blain Bergstrom said. “It’s good to have a home game to start tournament play in front of our fans and to have Paisley get her 100th goal was great.”

Trailing 4-0, New Lexington scored their only goal of the game at the 23:21 mark of the second half on an unassisted shot from junior Kayla Schneider.

McClain senior Larah Henson scored the final goal of the match with just 2:58 left in regulation on a penalty kick.

The Lady Tigers now 11-7 overall move on to the SE District Semifinals at Valley High School in Lucasville, where they will play No. 3 seeded Westfall on Monday, Oct. 26 at 7:30 p.m. 

“It’s good to get a big 5-1 win at home but we’ve got a lot to improve on before our next game,” said Bergstrom. “We really have only two girls that have played the same position so we have nine girls who are all playing new positions.

“Senior Allie Burgess who saw some playing time last year has moved from the front to the back and has done a wonderful job for us. We have lots of inexperience in new spots and sometimes that’s hard to overcome but our girls have played really hard and that’s all I can ask for.”