Daviess County’s impressive season came to a heartbreaking close as they were defeated 4-1 by Bowling Green in the first round of the state tournament.
Bowling Green mounted pressure on the Lady Panthers early into the game. The Purples scored nine minutes into the match and immediately put DCHS on the back foot.
The Lady Panthers were forced onto the defensive as Bowling Green controlled possession early in the first half. Bowling Green put in a second goal halfway through the first half after a breakaway had Daviess County’s defense in shambles.
The Lady Panthers found their footing offensively in the back end of the first half and began to get deeper into the attacking third. They cut Bowling Green’s lead down to just one goal not long after. Lillian Coombs served in a freekick from the sideline that made its way into the box. Molly Fuqua headed the ball to Bailey Brown who hit it with a strong volley into the bottom right corner. DCHS controlled the ball to end out the first half 2-1.
To start the second half, the two teams were more even in terms of chances created. Bowling Green capitalized on one chance with a shot from the top of the box that barely bounced off the reach of the goalkeeper and into the bottom right corner to make the score 3-1. Bowling Green scored the final goal of the match minutes later from a low cross into the box that put in at point blank range to put the final score at 4-1.
DCHS head coach David Sandifer said the effort on both offense and defense were there for the team, but the mentality of the team worsened after Bowling Green’s goals in the second half.
“It’s aggravating and they got a little frustrated,” he said. “At halftime we’re down 2-1, but we’re still in the game. We’ve given up a couple of goals that we’d like to think we shouldn’t have given up. They scored and that made it difficult, but the girls tried hard and they kept plugging away at it.”
Sandifer said that Bowling Green simply out performed them, and the Purples’ speed, passing and movement were just too much to handle.
“I’m proud of the effort the girls gave,” he said. “Of course, they’re unhappy, but Bowling Green is a good team. Tonight they were definitely better than we were. They had plenty of weapons. They’ve only given up 21 goals this season. The thing is they’re very quick, they get the ball off their feet quickly, they move very well and it was just hard to compete with that. Sometimes you just run into a better team and that’s all you can say.”
The Lady Panthers finished their season with an impressive 20-6 record.
