It was the final two minutes of the first half between Daviess County and Meade County that ended up deciding the winner, as a pair of goals by sophomore Kate McCain helped propel them to a 2-0 first-round win in the 3rd Region Tournament.
The Lady Waves came out of the gates aggressive, looking to grab an early goal to set the tone for the match. They were able to get multiple clean looks, but a couple of big saves from junior Lady Panthers keeper Emily Baughn kept the game tied at 0-0 in the 10th minute.
It was then that Daviess County was able to string together a couple of counter attacks, but sophomore Lily Hoagland and sophomore Lillian Coombs were unable to find the back of the net with the first shots of the game for the Lady Panthers. Meade County nearly broke through in the 28th minute after freshman Kaelin Labhart mishandled a clearance in net that resulted in a corner kick, but Daviess County was able to keep them off the board.
It seemed as though the game would head into halftime knotted up at 0-0, a couple of quick counters down in the final minutes of the first half quickly swung momentum the Lady Panthers way.
It was sophomore Lillian Coombs who set up the first goal for Daviess County, serving sophomore Kate McCain a through ball down the sideline that the striker controlled and put past the keeper to make it 1-0 in the 39th minute.
Some defensive prowess from the Lady Panthers gave them another quick chance with 30 seconds left in the first half, with freshman Bailey Brown hitting McCain in the box who took a touch and got past the goalie for a goal and a 2-0 lead at halftime.
“The first one was a very good finish and the second one, she again made the effort to cut in front of the goalkeeper and win that ball on a cross by Bailey Brown,” Head Coach David Sandifer said. “That was a good combination goal. The pass that Lillian made to Kate to score the first one was a good ball too.”
These two goals from McCain would be the deciding factor in the first round match, as the second half was quiet one as Daviess County came away with a 2-0 win. Despite the end result Sandifer was not happy with the way his team approached the postseason matchup, stating that they played with a lack of energy early on and that playing like that can come back to bite them at this point in the year.
“I thought we were lethargic, we were lackadaisical and we came out not ready to play,” Sandifer said. “Maybe that’s a symptom of being on fall break and not having a normal routine, but you gotta be better than that. That’s not going to work. Meade County played hard, but especially the way we started the game we were very very slow.”
In the second half of play Daviess County wasn’t able to find the back of the net again, but created many more chances for themselves and defended well to keep the Lady Waves off the board to earn the clean sheet. This was something that Sandifer was happy with, but wants to see done for the full 80 minutes every game.
“I thought we played a little bit better in the second half,” Sandifer said. “We hit some balls that could easily have gone in. Bailey Brown hit one off the post, we had a couple at the keeper’s feet and a couple at the keeper’s hands. Up until the last three or four minutes they didn’t have a whole lot of dangerous opportunities in the second half, so we obviously did something a little better.”
The Lady Panthers live to see another day with the win, as they will take on Ohio County in the 3rd Region Semifinals at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Daviess County beat the Lady Eagles 2-1 in the regular season, but Sandifer and company know that they will have to dial up the intensity the second time around to work their way to the 3rd Region Championship game.
“At this time of the year you’re not going to change who you are physically, you’re probably not going to change who you are too much,” Sandifer said. “You can change your alignment and you can possibly move a couple of kids around, but for the most part you are who you are and what it comes down to is mentality and effort. A team like Ohio County, they are going to play hard out of the gate and you have to be aware of it and be ready for it. So I’m going to have to do a better job of getting them mentally ready to play tomorrow, especially at the beginning of the game.”
