Lady Mustangs are SHL champions
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
DODSONVILLE — In what has been a season full of wins for the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs, they gained their biggest, and most important, win of the season Wednesday night, defeating the Fayetteville Lady Rockets 3-0 to win the Southern Hills League championship.
The championship was the first for Lynchburg-Clay since '05, as they finished the SHL slate at 7-0 and their regular season at 14-2.
"I consider Fayetteville the best overall program in the league year in, year out," LC coach Dennis West said following his 248th career coaching win Wednesday. "They (Fayetteville) have been consistent every year, and (Fayetteville coach) Jim (Smith) doesn't have an off year."
In Wednesday's match of two league undefeated teams (Fayetteville entered at 6-0), the Lady Mustangs scored at almost the halfway point (20:57) of the first half with Shelby Stewart kicking the ball in between two Lady Rocket defenders and past the diving keeper for the first goal, which was assisted by Sam Whitenack. The kick, from nearly 18 yards away, landed in the right corner of the goal for a 1-0 LC lead in the opening half.
After the first half ended, which in the final 20 minutes of the half included a couple saves by keeper Emma Setty, LC took a one-goal lead into the half.
Setty opened the second half the way she helped end the first half … with another big save at the 36:40 mark. Setty finished the match with seven saves.
Following the save, LC took the ball downfield and 29 seconds later scored a goal with Brandi Hunter scoring on a header, which was assisted by Karen Hilt for the 2-0 score. Hunter scored on the header as she was surrounded by two Fayetteville defenders.
"Brandy is right up there in leading scorers in the SE District this season," West said. "Tonight I asked her to play some defense because she's one of our better defenders. She had no problem with it and that is the type of attitude we've had all year long."
The third and final goal by the Lady Mustangs came with 34:56 left in the match when Taylor Scott, balancing on one leg, turned and kicked the ball towards the net, and the ball rolled slowly past the keeper for a 3-0 score. The goal was assisted by Hunter.
"We told the girls we had to use our field as a weapon," West said. "We have the biggest field in the SE District, and we work very hard to use every single inch of this field.
"This was just a good match, and we just told the girls at halftime they have to be ready, and that first 10 minutes of the second half were going to be huge … and the girls responded. When we scored the two goals at the start of the second half, you could feel the momentum change. The game had a whole different complexion after that."
Once all the offense was in place the defense of the Lady Mustangs went into full protect mode, stopping every shot on goal by the Lady Rockets for the remainder of the match. Fayetteville wrapped up the match with 15 shots, and LC had a total of 17 shots as the keeper of Fayetteville finished with nine saves.
The shutout by LC was their 10th of the season, with defense against Fayetteville from Molly Greenawalt, Alyssa Reynolds, Erin Rowlands and Sarah Rosselott.
"We work hard on getting our fullbacks to talk to one another. This group of defenders have worked together for two years now in the summer, and the regular season," West said. "To have something like that where we didn't lose anyone from last season, in that group, was monstrous to have.
"I'm just proud of what the girls have accomplished this regular season. Fayetteville didn't quit, and they kept coming after us. It was just one of those nights we caught them on a night where everything went right for us."
The loss dropped Fayetteville to 6-1 in the SHL, for a second-place finish.
Next for the Lady Mustangs is a Division III sectional final match against the winner of No. 8 Alexander and No. 9 North Adams. LC received a No. 1 seed for the postseason and will host the match on Saturday, Oct. 22 at 1 p.m.
"This season we lost to two really good Division II teams in Hillsboro and Western Brown, and in those games I can't say we played bad," West said. "We've played excellent soccer all season, and our last game (before Wednesday) was against Eastern Brown (who received a No. 3 seed), and that was a tough 2-1 win at their place.
"Our defense has just played well consistently."
BOX SCORE
FHS 0 0 — 0
LC 1 2 — 3[[In-content Ad]]
The championship was the first for Lynchburg-Clay since '05, as they finished the SHL slate at 7-0 and their regular season at 14-2.
"I consider Fayetteville the best overall program in the league year in, year out," LC coach Dennis West said following his 248th career coaching win Wednesday. "They (Fayetteville) have been consistent every year, and (Fayetteville coach) Jim (Smith) doesn't have an off year."
In Wednesday's match of two league undefeated teams (Fayetteville entered at 6-0), the Lady Mustangs scored at almost the halfway point (20:57) of the first half with Shelby Stewart kicking the ball in between two Lady Rocket defenders and past the diving keeper for the first goal, which was assisted by Sam Whitenack. The kick, from nearly 18 yards away, landed in the right corner of the goal for a 1-0 LC lead in the opening half.
After the first half ended, which in the final 20 minutes of the half included a couple saves by keeper Emma Setty, LC took a one-goal lead into the half.
Setty opened the second half the way she helped end the first half … with another big save at the 36:40 mark. Setty finished the match with seven saves.
Following the save, LC took the ball downfield and 29 seconds later scored a goal with Brandi Hunter scoring on a header, which was assisted by Karen Hilt for the 2-0 score. Hunter scored on the header as she was surrounded by two Fayetteville defenders.
"Brandy is right up there in leading scorers in the SE District this season," West said. "Tonight I asked her to play some defense because she's one of our better defenders. She had no problem with it and that is the type of attitude we've had all year long."
The third and final goal by the Lady Mustangs came with 34:56 left in the match when Taylor Scott, balancing on one leg, turned and kicked the ball towards the net, and the ball rolled slowly past the keeper for a 3-0 score. The goal was assisted by Hunter.
"We told the girls we had to use our field as a weapon," West said. "We have the biggest field in the SE District, and we work very hard to use every single inch of this field.
"This was just a good match, and we just told the girls at halftime they have to be ready, and that first 10 minutes of the second half were going to be huge … and the girls responded. When we scored the two goals at the start of the second half, you could feel the momentum change. The game had a whole different complexion after that."
Once all the offense was in place the defense of the Lady Mustangs went into full protect mode, stopping every shot on goal by the Lady Rockets for the remainder of the match. Fayetteville wrapped up the match with 15 shots, and LC had a total of 17 shots as the keeper of Fayetteville finished with nine saves.
The shutout by LC was their 10th of the season, with defense against Fayetteville from Molly Greenawalt, Alyssa Reynolds, Erin Rowlands and Sarah Rosselott.
"We work hard on getting our fullbacks to talk to one another. This group of defenders have worked together for two years now in the summer, and the regular season," West said. "To have something like that where we didn't lose anyone from last season, in that group, was monstrous to have.
"I'm just proud of what the girls have accomplished this regular season. Fayetteville didn't quit, and they kept coming after us. It was just one of those nights we caught them on a night where everything went right for us."
The loss dropped Fayetteville to 6-1 in the SHL, for a second-place finish.
Next for the Lady Mustangs is a Division III sectional final match against the winner of No. 8 Alexander and No. 9 North Adams. LC received a No. 1 seed for the postseason and will host the match on Saturday, Oct. 22 at 1 p.m.
"This season we lost to two really good Division II teams in Hillsboro and Western Brown, and in those games I can't say we played bad," West said. "We've played excellent soccer all season, and our last game (before Wednesday) was against Eastern Brown (who received a No. 3 seed), and that was a tough 2-1 win at their place.
"Our defense has just played well consistently."
BOX SCORE
FHS 0 0 — 0
LC 1 2 — 3[[In-content Ad]]