Lady Mustangs tie with Blanchester
Pictured is Lynchburg-Clay's Lily Ferguson vs. Blanchester on Monday, Sept. 29. (HCP Photos/Stephen Forsha)
DODSONVILLE — In a girls non-conference soccer match on Monday (Sept. 29) the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs and Blanchester Lady Wildcats tied at 0-0 following 80 minutes of action at LCHS.
That match saw both keepers make huge saves, especially in the second half.
The second half saw Blanchester keeper Ava Lanham — who totaled nine saves in the match — make a diving stop at the 39 minute mark, and later at the 37:30 mark she made another solid stop at goal. The Blanchester keeper even stopped a penalty kick with 34:54 left in regulation.
“This is the kind of game where a break like that you can’t give it up, and not take advantage of it, because it may be the only chance you get,” LCHS head coach Dennis West said of some missed opportunities at scoring goals. “We just keep struggling on offense. It has just been something I’m not used to in all the years I’ve coached.
“We’ve always had at least one, two, or sometimes three girls who could just light the thing up, and we just don’t have it this year. It’s just our inexperience. They are having to plug into roles they just aren’t comfortable with, and we are to the point we are down to four games left on our schedule. It has just been a struggle all year long scoring goals. We had some one-on-one chances in the second half and we just couldn’t finish it.”
LC keeper Caitlyn Collins also had some big stops in the 80-minute match, including saves with 27:40 and 26:06 left in regulation.
The Lady Mustangs also had a couple close opportunities to score goals late in the contest with a shot sailing wide at 19:42 and they had a ball bounce off the post of the goal with 8:30. The same could be said about Blanchester, as they had a shot sail wide of the goal with 21:50 left on the scoreboard.
In the final minutes of play the Lady Mustangs had possession of the ball, but time ran out as they were in Blanchester territory.
The tie leaves Blanchester with an overall record of 7-4-2, while Lynchburg-Clay now stands at 5-5-0 overall.