Fairfield returning to defend championship; win in district semifinals over Alexander

HILLSBORO — What a difference one month can make for a team. 

Exactly one month ago to the day, an injury-riddled Fairfield Lady Lions soccer team lost at home in a non-conference match to the Alexander Lady Spartans by three goals. Fast-forward with higher stakes on the line, and well, that’s where the Lady Lions shined. 

Monday evening in their Division V SE District Semifinal match against the same Alexander team, the Lady Lions were at 100 percent, and it showed on the soccer field as they controlled most of the first half with a 1-0 lead, then added two more goals in the second half for a 3-1 win, moving on to the district finals on Thursday.

When asked what was the biggest difference from their first meeting against Alexander compared to Monday night, Fairfield head coach Jacob Alexander spoke about his team being “healthy” now. 

“Well, we are healthy,” he said. “We were down our starting goalkeeper and our second-string goalkeeper that first game, and she was also our starting mid, so by game time we played our third-string keeper at goal, and she did an amazing job that day, but having everything back together makes a difference.”

In their semifinal match played at Hillsboro High School, the Lady Lions scored the only goal in the 40 minutes of action as senior Vivian Henninger sent the ball to the top left corner of the net for the goal and the 1-0 lead with 16:10 left on the first-half clock, as she raised her arms in the air in triumph, followed by hugs from teammates. 

The first half was mostly controlled by the Lady Lions where they out-shot Alexander, but it was Alexander (12-6-1) who had the first shot of the match a couple minutes into the district semifinal contest.

Later, around the 31:50 mark of the first half, it was senior keeper Meri Jackson keeping the score at zero when the Fairfield keeper left into the air and made a one-handed deflection of the ball to keep Alexander off the scoreboard.

The Lady Lions nearly scored their first goal of the match with 23:19 on the clock, but the shot was just a bit too high. Following the aforementioned goal by Henninger at the 16:10 mark, the first-half score stayed 1-0 when halftime arrived.

“The first half, we felt like we had a lot of control, but we felt we needed to get more shots off that at halftime, and the second half they (Alexander) came out with a lot of pressure in the first 10 minutes or so, and they finally got their goal,” Alexander said.

“That put us in a sense of urgency in us, and after that I felt like we had more control, even though they did have a couple spots where they came at us. I felt like we were in more control after our second goal.”

The defense of the Lady Lions had to face heavy pressure from Alexander for around the first 10 minutes of the second half, and they fended off many of the challenges brought to them by the Lady Spartans. 

That said, Fairfield’s offense also brought pressure as well with a shot at the goal with 33:28 on the clock, but a stop by Alexander kept the score at 1-0. 

Again, AHS pressured the defense of Fairfield, and again, the Lady Lions’ defense didn’t break, as they had numerous stops and interceptions of passes by Alexander, including a stop by Jackson on a corner kick with 27:20 left in regulation. 

Eventually, the pressure by Alexander was a little too much for the Lady Lions, as they tied the score at 1-1 when freshman Ruby Roush kicked the ball from 20-25 yards away and sent the ball to the back of the net with 24:54 left in the match. 

Even with the score being tied, that didn’t last long because the Lady Lions had an answer, and that was a goal scored by sophomore Brya Fauber for a 2-1 lead as the goal was scored with a short kick to the net with 22:58 left in regulation. 

Around four minutes later, the Lady Lions held a 3-1 lead when sophomore Cameron VanDyke scored a goal off a deflection off a save by the Alexander keeper for Fairfield’s third goal of the match, and second of the second half, with 18:38 left on the clock at Hillsboro High School. 

Both teams continued to play with speed and aggressiveness, but time eventually ran out on the scoreboard, sending the Lady Lions to the district finals, a game they won last season. 

“One of the benefits of playing a team is you can see what they have so you can make a plan to adjust for the second time, and we know a lot of the offense runs through No. 13 (Eliza Blaney), and they also had No. 6 (Addy Szolosi) on the side and No. 2 (Jovi Regan) in the midfield,” Alexander said. “They (Alexander) are a good team. They return from winning a district championship in Division IV last year, and we are a returning team from winning a district championship in District V. We both lost pieces, and we came back from last year to see what we had, and tonight we had the better outcome.”

Coach Alexander also spoke about his defense and just how important they were in the district semifinal win. 

“Whitlee Morrow, Landry Teeters and Isabelle Hale on the back line all did a great job,” he said. “Isabelle with the free kick got a nice assist, and Ruby Henninger in front of them as the defensive mid did a nice job of helping them out. Our wings did a great job of helping back tonight, too.”

Fairfield (11-5-3) will play in the Division V SE District Finals on Thursday, Oct. 29 against their Southern Hills Athletic Conference rival, the Eastern Lady Warriors (14-1-3) at 5 p.m. EHS — the SHAC soccer champions in ’26 — defeated North Adams, 3-1 on Thursday at HHS in their district semifinal match. 

Earlier this season (Sept. 2), Eastern and Fairfield played to a scoreless tie. Last season in the district semifinals, Fairfield defeated Eastern, 3-0. 

“It is going to be a battle,” Alexander said of facing Eastern in the district finals. “We know Eastern, they know us, and it is going to be one where who comes out with more energy and more execution is going to be the team that is going to get one. 

“When it was a 0-0 tie, I felt like we missed our opportunities against them, and hopefully this time we won’t.”

BOX SCORE
FHS    1 2 — 3
AHS    0 1 — 1