Lady Mustangs end regular season 15-0-1
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
DODSONVILLE — Lynchburg-Clay celebrated three seniors at halftime Wednesday, then for good measure celebrated ending the 2013 regular season with an undefeated record, the first time in team history, by defeating the Eastern Brown Lady Warriors, 7-1.
The 15th victory of the season by the Lady Mustangs moves them to 15-0-1 overall, as they are nearing the best overall record by any LC girls team, which was set in 2005, a team that went 17-1-2 and advanced to the regional final. The '05 team went 14-0-2 in the regular season.
Fast-forward eight seasons later, and the current group of Lady Mustangs are making their own history as they finished not only with 15 wins on the season, a perfect 7-0 mark in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference, but will host a possible two postseason games if they win in the sectional round.
"This is a special group of players," LC coach Dennis West said. "They have a chance to be as good as the 2005 team, but we'll have to wait and see what happens in the tournament."
Currently, the Lady Mustangs are ranked No. 6 in the Division III state coaches rankings and won't play again until Saturday, Oct. 19 at 4 p.m. against the winner of No. 8 seeded Chesapeake and No. 9 West in the sectional final at LCHS. The winner of the sectional final will then play on Oct. 22 in the district semifinals.
"We kept the sixth ranking in the state this week, and I feel like people are coming to recognize the program," West said. "Now we have to back up that ranking, and I think we can."
Now, back to the game vs. EB on Wednesday … LC at one point trailed 1-0 following Eastern's lone goal when Courtney Belmont, a junior, made it a one-goal deficit for the host team with 36:06 on the first-half clock.
From there, the Lady Mustangs scored seven unanswered goals to seal the victory.
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The onslaught of scoring began with Keanna Oaks tying the score 1-1 at the 30:03 mark of the match off an assist from Sam Whitenack. From there, Hannah Binkley made it a 2-1 LC lead when at the 28:36 mark, she put the ball in the back of the net off an assist from McKayla Binkley.
McKayla Binkley followed with a goal of her own at the 9:08 mark of the match with the assist from Hannah Binkley in a reversal of roles for a two-goal advantage.
Still in the opening half, Lexi Waits put LC ahead 4-1 on an unassisted goal, and then LC moved up to a four-goal advantage when McKayla Binkley added a second goal to her individual totals, with an assist from Madison Wills.
Leading 5-1 at halftime, LC entered the half in complete control of the match, and with a revolving roster of players entering and leaving the match, they still added two goals to their totals for the eventual six-goal (7-1) win.
In the second half, Morgan Fittro scored a goal at the 31:52 mark with the assist from Whitenack, and the final goal came off the foot of Shelby Stewart a few seconds later at 31:26 to wrap up the scoring.
A trio of LC keepers of Sabrina Duncan, Bailey Leininger and Waits totaled seven saves as EB was held to just 10 shots at goal on the match.
LC totaled 22 shots.
"Everyone got to play, and we're getting good play from everyone," West said. "It is important for the team to be fresh and focused and to be content to stay at one level.
"Eastern has a good program. They've been decimated by injuries … they had to play without three seniors (Wednesday)."
The 15th victory of the season by the Lady Mustangs moves them to 15-0-1 overall, as they are nearing the best overall record by any LC girls team, which was set in 2005, a team that went 17-1-2 and advanced to the regional final. The '05 team went 14-0-2 in the regular season.
Fast-forward eight seasons later, and the current group of Lady Mustangs are making their own history as they finished not only with 15 wins on the season, a perfect 7-0 mark in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference, but will host a possible two postseason games if they win in the sectional round.
"This is a special group of players," LC coach Dennis West said. "They have a chance to be as good as the 2005 team, but we'll have to wait and see what happens in the tournament."
Currently, the Lady Mustangs are ranked No. 6 in the Division III state coaches rankings and won't play again until Saturday, Oct. 19 at 4 p.m. against the winner of No. 8 seeded Chesapeake and No. 9 West in the sectional final at LCHS. The winner of the sectional final will then play on Oct. 22 in the district semifinals.
"We kept the sixth ranking in the state this week, and I feel like people are coming to recognize the program," West said. "Now we have to back up that ranking, and I think we can."
Now, back to the game vs. EB on Wednesday … LC at one point trailed 1-0 following Eastern's lone goal when Courtney Belmont, a junior, made it a one-goal deficit for the host team with 36:06 on the first-half clock.
From there, the Lady Mustangs scored seven unanswered goals to seal the victory.
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The onslaught of scoring began with Keanna Oaks tying the score 1-1 at the 30:03 mark of the match off an assist from Sam Whitenack. From there, Hannah Binkley made it a 2-1 LC lead when at the 28:36 mark, she put the ball in the back of the net off an assist from McKayla Binkley.
McKayla Binkley followed with a goal of her own at the 9:08 mark of the match with the assist from Hannah Binkley in a reversal of roles for a two-goal advantage.
Still in the opening half, Lexi Waits put LC ahead 4-1 on an unassisted goal, and then LC moved up to a four-goal advantage when McKayla Binkley added a second goal to her individual totals, with an assist from Madison Wills.
Leading 5-1 at halftime, LC entered the half in complete control of the match, and with a revolving roster of players entering and leaving the match, they still added two goals to their totals for the eventual six-goal (7-1) win.
In the second half, Morgan Fittro scored a goal at the 31:52 mark with the assist from Whitenack, and the final goal came off the foot of Shelby Stewart a few seconds later at 31:26 to wrap up the scoring.
A trio of LC keepers of Sabrina Duncan, Bailey Leininger and Waits totaled seven saves as EB was held to just 10 shots at goal on the match.
LC totaled 22 shots.
"Everyone got to play, and we're getting good play from everyone," West said. "It is important for the team to be fresh and focused and to be content to stay at one level.
"Eastern has a good program. They've been decimated by injuries … they had to play without three seniors (Wednesday)."