Lady Tigers extend school record for wins in shutout of Eastern

The McClain girls varsity soccer team continued their historic season with a 2-0 shutout of Eastern Brown in Greenfield Wednesday night.

It was the final regular-season game before tournament starts next week, when the Lady Tigers will host the winner of the Fairland/New Lexington game on McClain Field next Wednesday with a 6 p.m. start time.

The Lady Tigers improved to 11-4-2 overall, which includes the most wins in girls varsity soccer program history at McClain, and their 4-4-2 Frontier Athletic Conference record was good for a third-place finish.

“Best record in school history for girls,” said McClain head coach Blain Bergstrom. “We got another win for the season and our program, which is really phenomenal for all of our girls.”

The game started slowly for McClain and neither team was able to score until just 5:15 was left in the opening half, when Karlee McGlone knocked in a goal just in front of the net off a deflection by the Eastern Brown goalie.

“Karlee’s goal was deflected off their goalie, and she was at the right place at the right time, and sometimes that’s just how it plays out,” Bergstrom said.

It was the only goal scored by either team in the first 40 minutes, where the Lady Tigers led 1-0 at halftime.

McClain came out with a lot more enthusiasm in the second half and scored their second goal of the contest at the 34:21 mark on a really long shot by sophomore Paisley Pryor.  It proved to be the only goal of the second half, as both teams had several opportunities to score, but defense was key to the low-scoring half and game.

“Paisley’s goal was a really good shot,” said Bergstrom “I tell her all the time that she sometimes makes hard shots look easy and then makes easy shots look a lot harder than they really are.

“Eastern Brown has a good program, and their coach has been there seven years now but he only has 11 girls, but they play really hard. I thought in the second half we kind of wore them down a little, and I thought our girls played a lot better. We only scored the one goal, but I thought we had a lot more chances.”

“Overall, I was very pleased with our second half performance,” Bergstrom continued. “We just need to pick it up a little more in the first half and start the game ready to play.”

Coach Bergstrom after the game spoke some about his seniors and what they’ve meant to him and his program.

“I’ve got four great seniors, Kenzie Wise, Lindsey Hutchinson, Piper Davis and Isabelle Smith, and they’re all going to leave this program with most wins in a four-year span than any other four-year players,” Bergstrom said.  “They are all great leaders and role models to all of our younger players, and they’ve all been on the varsity for four years and some have started all four years.

“They’ve all had very successful high school careers, and I really appreciate what they’ve all done for this program.”

The Lady Tigers open tournament play next Wednesday, Oct. 16 when they will host the winner of Fairland and New Lexington in a 6 p.m. start time.

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