Lady Mustangs continue tournament run; win in 2 OTs against Valley

WAVERLY — If there are two things the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs’ soccer program knows how to do, they are winning in the district tournament and winning overtime games. Playing aggressive defense can be added to that thought, too. 

Winning in the district round, winning in overtime and playing aggressive defense all were true Monday evening at Raidiger Field in downtown Waverly, as it took two overtimes for the No. 2 seeded Lady Mustangs to defeat a tough No. 3 seeded Valley Lady Indians in their Division V SE District Semifinal game. 

The Lady Mustangs (7-8-2) and Valley (12-6-0) played quite possibly the most physical and aggressive match in the state on Monday in their district semifinal showdown, as each team battled to the ball for not only during their 80 minutes to regulation, but the tough battles continued in the first 15-minute overtime, then until the game-winning goal was scored with 12:14 left in the second overtime. 

That game-winning goal was scored by Lily Ferguson, who raced away to score the goal that made it a 2-1 final score, sending the Lady Mustangs back to the district finals for the 15th consecutive season as LCHS has won six straight district championships and 11 district titles in the past 12 seasons. 

This is the second consecutive tournament game Lynchburg-Clay has won in overtime, as they won their district quarterfinal game against North Adams by a 1-0 score. 

“I’m getting too old for this,” LCHS head coach Dennis West said. “Never in 27 years have we had two overtime games … boom, boom like that, with one going one overtime and the other going double overtime. The girls are just resilient. They didn’t get tired, well at times, but our bench was just powerful tonight. Our defense was outstanding.

“We had the one breakdown against (Austin) Frantz, but she is a powerful young lady. We were told to watch No. 4 and No. 11 because they will get you in the goal and we saw that early on, but the key was we didn’t do that the rest of the game. We kind of wore them down as we got to the latter parts of the game, and that helped us there. Lily, that was a heck of a finish there, and Caraline got the quick one at the beginning of the game, and that got us off to a good start. Then it just turned into a grind-it-out affair, and I thought we did a good job on defense.”

During Monday’s game the Lady Mustangs struck first … and fast, as their first goal was scored within the first minute of the match, as Caraline West sent the ball to the back of the net with the assist from Ferguson with the scoreboard reading 39:26. 

Valley — who were playing just their second tournament game in program history (they began varsity girls soccer in 2024) — tied the score at 1-1 with a goal from Mia Rose as the goal was unassisted with 32:19 left in the first half. 

Even though both teams didn’t score another goal for over the next 89 minutes of game action, that didn’t mean the game slowed down. If anything, the game ramped up with energy from both sides as the two teams put on a defensive showcase during their match, as both keepers kept the ball out of the net, and the two defenses were big with their stops too. 

One of the biggest stops of the match was by LCHS keeper Caitlyn Collins with 32:10 on the clock in the second half off a corner kick, and later there was a big group of players battling in front of the goal, but the defense of the Lady Mustangs kept the ball away from the net with 18:55 left in regulation. 

A huge stop by LCHS junior Baylee McClain was a highlight reel play as she made a sliding stop on defense at the corner of the goal, keeping Valley from taking a one-goal lead, and the match continued at 1-1 with 7:15 left in regulation. 

“This is Baylee’s second game playing on the back line in three years, and it has made a tremendous difference in the North Adams game and this game,” West said. “You saw tonight, that was a season-saving stop by Baylee. She’s just done that the past two games, and I feel she’s more comfortable back there and certainly made a good defense better. With plays like that, she’ll be back there next year because she was fantastic.”

That stop at the goal helped move the game into overtime, and the first overtime didn’t disappoint as defense continued to be the name of the game. 

West spoke about what he talked about with his team during the intermissions of the overtime periods. 

“We go over little things that we need them to do as far as tweaking where they are lining up or where we want the ball to be played, or just congratulate them on good play and just keep doing it,” West said. “You are down to either win or you go home and get ready for whatever sport you play next. They weren’t ready for that yet and just kept after it.”

Collins had a save 10 seconds into the first overtime as Valley broke away with the ball to get a shot at the goal. Collins had another solid save with 11:25 left in the first overtime, and Valley later stopped the Lady Mustangs from gaining the win with a save at the 6:00 mark. 

The score stayed tied at 1-1 as the buzzer sounded, ending the first 15-minute overtime. 

Then came overtime two, and well, this time it lasted just 2:46 seconds because Ferguson sent the ball past the keeper of Valley to score the unassisted goal, sending Lynchburg-Clay back to the district finals for a chance to defend their championship from a year ago. 

As LCHS looks to win their seventh consecutive district championship and 12th in the past 13 seasons, the task won’t be easy as the No. 1 seeded Fairfield Lady Lions (12-6-0) will be the opponent on Thursday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. at Raidiger Field in Waverly. 

Earlier in the regular season, the two Highland County rivals faced each other and it was Fairfield winning 2-1, snapping the 102-game SHAC non-loss streak of Lynchburg-Clay on Oct. 8. Also, the two teams have defeated each other in the district finals and regional semifinals the past two seasons, with LCHS winning both of those games.