Daviess County left it all out on the pitch Monday, but their season came to a close with a 3-1 loss to Ohio County after nearly pulling off an upset.
Ohio County came out of the gates aggressive, looking to get ahead and put the Lady Panthers away early.
Two minutes into play the Lady Eagles nearly connected, clanking one off of the crossbar and out of play.
Defensively Daviess County was fighting, limiting Ohio County’s ability to play balls in the box. This led to a number of runs, but it seemed like they were just a step behind in completing them.
The Lady Panthers had a clean look with the keeper charging in the 16th minute, but it sailed wide and kept the game tied at zero.
For the rest of the first half the two teams traded counters, but neither were able to connect and the game was 0-0 going into halftime.
The Lady Eagles came out of halftime firing and junior Emma Patterson made two huge saves to keep them off the board.
This paid off in spades with back-to-back runs for junior Brooke Schwartz, connecting on the latter by chipping it past the goalie and taking a 1-0 lead in the 45th minute.
Ohio County wasn’t going down without a fight though, as senior Carly Embry sunk one from just outside the box in the 48th minute to tie things at 1-1.
Patterson continued to work hard in goal, making a couple more clutch saves to keep things tied in the second half. She finished with 23 total on the night, something that Head Coach David Sandifer wasn’t surprised with.
“Emma has played well all year,” Sandifer said. “She’s kept us in games. She played really well tonight… She’s made a lot of saves that kept us in games and has done an outstanding job all year.”
Meanwhile Daviess County was really pushing to score via the through ball, making its offense sputter at times.
The Lady Panthers nearly took the lead in the 68th minute, as senior Steeley Walker drew a penalty kick.
Freshman Lillian Coombs shot was saved by the keeper and freshman Kate McCain followed, but it was deflected out of bounds by Ohio County.
The corner resulted in nothing and the Lady Eagles nearly took advantage as Embry’s ensuing shot rang off the post.
Daviess County rattled off another shot in the 70th minute, but the keeper just narrowly made the save to keep it tied at 1-1.
It seemed as though the game was destined for a shootout, but a bad goal kick found the feet of sophomore Emily Goff and she dribbled past a diving Patterson and scored to make it 2-1 Ohio County in the 77th minute.
“I was cramping as I was going, but I knew they all know I’m left footed up there,” Goff said. “So I kind of went for a right-foot stab to see if they would fade that way, which they did. Which made me able to get around them and I’m used to taking long shots, so I thought if I would take a stab at the goalie I could go around her which is what helped me get my goal.”
Embry earned an insurance goal in the final minute for the Lady Eagles, but it was Goff’s late goal that gave them the late edge en route to a 3-1 win.
While Embry and Goff combined for the three goals, Sandifer was pleased with how they defended them throughout the game.
“Well we did mark them,” Sandifer said. “I think we lost a couple of times in the second probably a little bit because of the two girls that marked them, Reagan Chinn and Molly Fuqua, I think they probably got a little bit fatigued chasing them around the field… The whole team did what we asked them to do.”
Offensively Daviess County runs increasingly improved throughout the night, which Ohio County Head Coach Courtney Calloway attributes to their aggressiveness.
“I think the biggest thing that I saw them doing is they were stepping to the ball better than we were at times,” Calloway said. “They were beating the defense that way. Skylar Loney played a much better second half and was shutting them down on the left side for us, right side for them, because she just stepped to the ball.”
Despite the loss ending their season, Sandifer couldn’t have asked for a better performance throughout all 80 minutes from his team.
“I don’t think that anyone sitting over there thought that this game would be this way…” Sandifer said. “They executed the way we wanted to execute. They played the gameplan that we put in and they did a very good job at it. Sometimes you just don’t have the horses and I think some of us just ran out of gas tonight.”
