Lady Maroons fall to Ohio County, 4-0

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

For the fourth straight year, the Ohio County girls soccer team ended the postseason for Madisonville-North Hopkins as the Lady Eagles defeated the Lady Maroons 4-0 on Tuesday evening at Donley Field.

Neither team managed to score in the first half of the Third Region semi-finals despite several opportunities, taking a 0-0 tie into halftime, but Ohio (16-3-2) notched four goals in the final 40 minutes, which proved to be insurmountable for North (14-4-3).

After playing solid defense to begin the game, once North allowed its first goal, the flood gates seemed to part and never closed.

The game’s first goal came just minutes into the second half when McKinsey Ward hit from near the 18-yard line, past an outstretched Troyanna Hardy in goal, giving Ohio a 1-0 advantage.

Nearly 10 minutes passed before the Lady Eagles repeated the feat. Charley Notle scored on a breakaway opportunity, firing a shot past Hardy in a one-on-one situation to go ahead 2-0.

With 22:32 left in the game, Hardy blocked a penalty kick by Katie Henderson, but Kaitlyn Duke tracked down the rebound to score for the Lady Eagles.

Less than two minutes later, Henderson sent a rocket to the back of the net from 20 yards to give Ohio a commanding 4-0 lead, which stuck until the final whistle.

Neither team would have guessed the second half’s outcome after a grueling defensive battle to begin the game.

Nine minutes into action, North goalkeeper Troyanna Hardy made a solid save on an Ohio hard hitter to keep the Lady Eagles off the board.

Just 15 seconds later, Heidi Clayton moved the ball up field on a header to Laura Rao, who collected the ball and fired toward the goal, but an alert Brandie Hagerman hauled in the shot in goal.

Ohio sophomore Leslie Chinn had the game’s next chance to break up the shutout when she launched a shot toward Hardy, but the shot deflected off the North goalie’s leg and bounced harmlessly away.

The Lady Maroons’ fans cheered wildly midway through the first half after Clayton sent a shot toward goal, but the ball went just over the crossbar.

North defender Yiwenna Chen saved multiple goals later in the first half after Hardy vacated the goal to stop several Lady Eagle shot attempts.