Kenlee Newcom and Lily Moore each had five goals to lift their respective teams to wins Tuesday night. Newcom and Daviess County (4-3, 3-1 District 9) rolled to a 10-0 home victory over Owensboro (3-4, 1-3), while Moore and Owensboro Catholic (6-1, 4-0) picked up a 9-2 win at home over Apollo (3-5, 0-4).
The Lady Panthers got on the board less than a minute in when a cross from Meredith Campbell came perfectly through the box to Newcom, who punched it in for her first goal.
Newcom had a hat trick only 10 minutes in, added a fourth goal 5 minutes later and rounded out her night with a score early in the second half. She tied a school record for scoring, but said she owed her performance to her teammates.
“It felt pretty good, but I couldn’t have done it without my team,” Newcom said. “We were playing unselfish. All of our crosses were spot on.”
Five different players scored, and five different players contributed to a total of eight assists.
“None of us could have done it without our teammates,” Newcom said. “Everyone was playing really good balls. In the first half, we were all moving really well and it was working out.”
Newcom got her second goal on a penalty kick after she was tripped in the box when she received a pass from Ashlyn Payton. She scored again off an assist from Chloe Hinchcliffe 10 minutes in, and moments later Hinchcliffe got a goal off a pass from Elizabeth Collier.
Payton then set up Newcom for another goal, and 5 minutes later Hinchliffe got another assist, this time by giving the ball up to Sophie Jagoe. The final score of the half for the Lady Panthers came from Avery McNeily on a long pass from Tory Beth Baylis for a 7-0 lead at the break.
Hinchcliffe and Newcom connected again to cap off the busy night for Newcom, and Hinchcliffe got her second goal of the night off a penatly kick after a handball against the Lady Devils in the box.
Payton beat a couple defenders with about 23 minutes to play in the half, and she was able to find the net for a score to end the game early. Payton said the team was ready to compete going in, and they need to carry that forward to stay successful.
“We do better as a team when we pass and move,” she said. “When play for each other, it works out pretty well. It should give us some confidence moving forward. We’ve picked up how we play. Our competition is getting harder as the season goes on, so we have to pick it up.”
Owensboro head coach Casey Cundiff said the team is battling injury, but they didn’t come into the game ready to play.
“Tonight was a lot of mental breakdowns,” he said. “I think we hustled, but we weren’t thinking while we were playing. We ran into some adversity.”
The Lady Devils were playing without their usual center backs, who are out with injuries. Going forward, Owensboro has to find a way to overcome the losses.
“We had some girls step up and work hard, but we’ve got to figure it out,” Cundiff said. “We’ve got to remold our team a little bit. We’ll come back tomorrow and work some different players in and just keep going.”
The Lady Devils return to action Thursday for a 7 p.m. game at Caldwell County. The Lady Panthers are off until Saturday, when they play a pair of games in the DC Electric Lady Marshal Classic at Marshall County. They play Boyle County at 11:30 a.m. and Marshall County at 5:30 p.m.
Owensboro Catholic 9, Apollo 2
Moore scored four of her goals in the first half, the last coming with only 30 seconds to go before the break. The first three goals all came from Moore in an 11-minute span. Emma Eyre assisted on the first two, while Izzy Stanfield contributed to the other.
Moore then set up Genarose Jones with 12 minutes to play in the half. The two switched roles to start the second half, with Jones assisting on Moore’s final goal with 33 minutes to play.
Apollo’s Shelby Taylor responded a minute later with her first of two goals to cut the Lady Aces’ lead to 6-1. Midway through the half, Stanfield added a goal for OCHS, and Taylor responded quickly again with the final E-Gals’ score.
Stanfield went on to add another goal with an assist from Jones, and the Aces added one last score from Kara Morris with 6 seconds to play.
For the E-Gals, Brianna Troutman and Alyssa Lawrence each had an assist, and Zoe Floyd had 26 saves in goal.
Apollo hits the road to play at 7:15 p.m. Thursday at Greenwood, while the Lady Aces are off until 6 p.m. Saturday, when they travel to Evansville Memorial.
