Friday, September 12, 2008
Up just 2-0 at halftime over Owensboro High School, Madisonville-North Hopkins soccer coach Steve Shepard challenged his players to step it up in the second half Thursday evening and the Lady Maroons answered the call, led by the play of forwards Heidi Clayton and Laura Rao.
Clayton scored three goals during the second half and Rao finished the game with a pair as the Lady Maroons (6-2-2) dominated the Lady Devils (2-7-0) in the final 40 minutes to win 6-1 at Donley Field.
After the game, Shepard said he was amazed by how well the team responded.
“I wanted them to work our system, take it to the wings, go through the middle with one-two passing, just make runs,” he said. “I told them that was the best sticking to the plan and doing what the coaches ask that we’ve had this year for sure.”
Clayton began the second-half offensive surge when she rushed past an Owensboro defender and took a pass from Rao, stopped, juked, sized her shot up and let it rip into the back of the net for a 3-0 advantage with 27 minutes remaining.
“We definitely kicked in full gear the second half,” Clayton said. “I can’t even remember anything we did wrong. We tightened everything up. We took everything we did wrong in the first half and just fixed it.”
Eight minutes passed and Rao once again set up Clayton for another breakaway goal. Clayton returned the favor two minutes later when she made an assist to Rao, who scored her second goal of the game.
“We were on fire,” Rao said. “We really played together and that’s the reason the score was like that. I knew where she was going to be. We’re best friends on and off the field and that really helps, and it showed tonight.”
With 16:25 remaining in the game, Clayton collected her third goal and the team’s last on the day.
Owensboro denied North the shutout when the Lady Devils scored on a penalty kick with less than two minutes left.
Despite the goal, the Lady Maroon defense played well and nearly earned its third shutout in a row.
Goalkeeper Troyanna Hardy said the North defense has succeeded of late because the team has really worked on being alert at all times.
“We’ve been focusing a lot more on playing your space and helping each other,” she said. “On the corners, instead of playing straight across on back posts, to learn to stay sideways so they can see the whole field and come out to play defense.”
The defense did its job during the second half as well as first, but the Lady Maroons’ offense took a while to get in gear.
The game remained scoreless until 5:29 left in the first half when Lyndi Tedder drilled one home on a direct kick.
Shepard said Tedder’s goal was a direct result of her staying after practice and working on her long-distance range.
Although Tedder was shocked at first to see the goal go in, she said she knows the extra practice helped her to success Thursday.
“I was amazed, I was like, ‘Did that really go in?,’” she said. “Then again, I wasn’t surprised because I’ve been working hard on long kicks, trying to strengthen up, trying to get it up there for my teammates.”
About four minutes later Rao notched her first goal of the night on a penalty kick. Rao took the penalty kick after the goal keeper pushed her while in the box.
Before the foul was called, McKinsey Durham knocked in a goal during the confusion. The goal was waved off, however, when the referees discussed the foul call.
Nonetheless, Rao stepped up and converted to make the goal and give North a 2-0 lead.
“We really needed that second goal, and I think it really opened up the gate for the second half because we started scoring a bunch,” Rao said.
North will get a bit of a break as the Lady Maroons do not play again until 12 p.m. Sept. 20 against Christian County in the Lady Donley Classic.
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