Owensboro Catholic and Daviess County are set to face off again in the Girls’ 9th District Soccer Championship after they eliminated Apollo and Owensboro.
OCHS 6, AHS 0
Owensboro Catholic beat Apollo 6-0 in their match to secure their chance of winning the district title for the fourth year in a row.
Owensboro Catholic mounted pressure offensively early as Mallary Bailey scored just inside the arch four minutes into the game. Apollo played on the defensive for most of the first half. Catholic held pressure on them with accurate passing and by making runs behind the AHS back line.
The Lady Aces broke through again when Jahaira Ward scored directly from a corner kick with the help of a deflection from the goalkeeper.
After a loose ball bounced in the box, Ireland Quinn got control and passed it into the net to make their lead 3-0 at halftime.
In the second half the E-gals didn’t give up despite conceding three more goals in the second half. AHS played well defensively, but often could not find the pass to kickstart their counter attacks.
Elle Ray assisted Elizabeth Hayden on the first goal of the second half to take the score to 4-0. Annie Helwig scored the fifth goal with a long shot from outside the box that slammed into the crossbar and into the net. Bailey doubled her total from an assist by Helwig to close out scoring at 6-0.
The Lady Aces had multiple players step up to make plays tonight, and head coach Andy Hines said that was necessary to advance to the finals.
“I think we know Mallary can score, but she hasn’t scored as much as she should this year,” he said. “She got two and played really well, and maybe should have had a couple more. I know Annie can score, but she’s been sick for a couple of weeks because she got Mono in the middle of the year. She finally looked like she’s back to her normal self. We need those kinds of players, and everyone worked hard tonight.”
With this game, Apollo finished their season with a record of 10-9. This is the first season the E-gals have had a winning season since 2009. Head coach Zach Akin said despite the result tonight, the season was a special one thanks to the team.
“I tell them all the time that this program is what you make of it,” he said. “For them to run with that and do what they did is special. It’s tough to see this end the way it did, but I told them to be proud of what they accomplished. I mean we’ve tested these girls and put them through the ringer, and what they’ve been able to do and the way they were able to compete, obviously at times it wasn’t what we wanted, but it was fantastic throughout the year.”
DCHS 2, OHS 1
Daviess County narrowly won 2-1 against Owensboro by scoring in the final seconds of the match to secure their place in the finals.
The lone goal for the Lady Red Devils was scored by Sydney Lovett from an assist by Addyson Riney. The first goal for the Lady Panthers was scored by Molly Fuqua. With just seven seconds left on the clock, Mary Evelyn Wiman scored the winning goal to send Daviess County to the finals.
Owensboro goalkeeper Emma Wilkins had an impressive 24 saves during the match. This propelled her into second place for the most saves in the team’s history. In fact, Wilkins surpassed head coach Sarah Poole who is now in third place in all-time saves after the match.
The match was a hard fought battle by both teams. Poole said that OHS went into the game with the plan to play defensive and try to score off of a counter attack and then defend for the rest of the match.
“Last seven-second goal is a heartbreaker,” she said. “We had a plan to defend with the entire team and if we could counter attack and get Sydney in on goal, then that’s how we were gonna score and that’s what we did. Then we pulled her back in. Our defense really worked. Our entire team would just swing left with the ball, swing right with the ball, move up and move back. They worked like a machine tonight.”
OHS finished the season with a record of 6-15. This also concluded Poole’s first season as head coach with the Lady Red Devils. Despite the results in the season, Poole said she will always remember this team.
“No matter what happens in the future I’ll remember this team for working through things with me because I’m learning too,” she said. “They were just a fun group of girls. I couldn’t ask for a better group my first year of coaching.”
