In a physical battle between rivals Wednesday night, Meredith Campbell scored a pair of late goals less than a minute apart to lift Daviess County to a 4-2 home victory over Owensboro Catholic in 9th District girls’ soccer action.
Tied 2-2 with less than 10 minutes to play, the Lady Panthers (10-1, 4-0 9th District) mounted a pair of quick attacks that ended with scores by Campbell.
The first came off a throw-in when Avery McNeiley pressed up the right side and slotted in a pass to Campbell, who easily tapped it in for the go-ahead goal with 6:07 to go. Less than a minute later, Campbell split a few defenders, took a pass from Chloe Hinchcliffe in the middle of the field and rolled in a shot to the left side of the net.
“Throughout the whole game we tried to play long through balls, but every single time they got stopped,” Campbell said. “We realized our forward needed to make more diagonal runs, and then we just needed to slide it through.”
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For a full photo gallery from the game, click here.
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Cambell said the matchup with the Lady Aces (3-3-1, 3-1) was every bit as intense as they could have expected.
“We knew that we needed to come in mentally prepared,” she said. “We started out slow but we gradually picked up the momentum. We knew we had to play as hard as them.”
The lone score of the first half came from DC’s Kenlee Newcom. She sent the ball into the box, where it was misplayed by a Catholic defender and went into the goal.
The Lady Aces tied the game midway through the second half. With a defender tight on her inside foot, Lily Moore took a pass from Katie Riney and booted a long, curving shot from left to right that connected for the equalizer.
DC wasted no time, going back in front a minute later. Elizabeth Collier lofted an arching cross from the right corner into the middle of the box, where Maci Sanders sent a header into the net.
Catholic leveled the score again on a corner kick with 14:28 to play, as Kaylee Morris tapped it in from just in front of the goal after a pass from Rachel Traylor. Head coach Lindsey Overby said the players came up with the set piece on their own.
“That was something they did,” she said. “We were standing on the sidelines wondering what they were doing, but it worked. Sometimes they do their thing. We give them that freedom.”
Overby said though they came out on the wrong end, she was nothing but proud of her team.
“In all honesty they played fantastic,” she said. “County is an obvious rival so the nerves and the emotions are there. All 16 of our girls gave 110 percent the entire 80 minutes. I have nothing negative to say at all. They were awesome.”
Catholic goalkeeper Megan Goodwin finished with 14 saves, while DC’s Emma Patterson had six.
The Lady Panthers return to action this weekend as host of the Thoroughbred Cup, which will be played at Thompson-Berry Soccer Complex. They play Father Ryan on Friday and Seymour on Saturday.
The Lady Aces play Saturday at Meade County.
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2019 soccer coverage is presented by Worth Insurance Group.
