While the Lady Panthers hot start had them out in front going into the final 10 minutes of play, Owensboro Catholic was able to turn on the jets and score a pair of goals to grab a 4-3 win to advance to 5-0 in district play.
Daviess County wasted no time getting on the board, looking to set the tone for a potential revenge victory after losing 4-2 earlier in the season. They got a goal from senior Reagan Chinn 29 seconds into play, taking a 1-0 lead at Panther Stadium due to weather conditions.
The Lady Panthers nearly scored in the 21st minute, but after the shot missed wide the Lady Aces went on the attack. A quick counter got them downfield, getting a shot off before senior Maddie Hayden cleaned up the rebound to knot things up at 1-1 in the 22nd minute.
Daviess County wasn’t going away though, immediately trying to get back in the box to create chances. Sophomore Kate McCain was able to do so, playing a ball off the bounce after throwing it in and volleying it just over senior keeper Abbie Payne on the right side of the net to give them a 2-1 lead in the 28th minute.
Owensboro Catholic went to get a number of looks in the box to try and tie the game up going into halftime, but the Lady Panthers were able to keep them off the board to hold onto a 2-1 lead. However, the lead didn’t last long, as a quick counter two minutes into the second half led to a goal from junior Ginny Young from close range to even things up at 2-2.
Both teams continued to try and get deep into their attacking third to start the half, making it clear this game was going to go down to the wire. It was Daviess County who got the edge first, getting a brilliant move from sophomore Lily Hoagland after a save by Payne.
After corralling the rebound, Hoagland faked to her right and took a touch back left before ripping a shot with her left foot and finding the back of the net to make it a 3-2 game in the 53rd minute. Both teams proceeded to trade possession back and forth as the second half continued, with it seeming like the Lady Panthers would hold on for a big district win.
But the Lady Aces had other ideas, as senior Maddie Hayden got a little space from about 25 out and used her left foot to find the right side of the net and even things up at 3-3 in the 72nd minute. Owensboro Catholic kept its foot on the gas, getting a number of shots in the next few minutes.
The Lady Aces were able to break through in the 77th minute to grab the game-winner, as a corner kick fell into a barrage of feet with senior Katie Riney tapping it in to find the back of the net and put the finishing touches on a comeback 4-3 win.
Daviess County Head Coach David Sandifer said that Owensboro Catholic played more intensely to close out the match and some little mistakes came back to bite them in the loss.
“They were just much more aggressive than we were,” Sandifer said. “That’s their style and they’re good at it. You gotta know where Maddie Hayden is on the field at all times and on corner kicks you’ve gotta win the ball. You can’t let a ball come down in your box and give up a goal that way.”
For the Lady Aces Head Coach Andy Hines knows that they have some things to work on going on forward, but was pleased with their resiliency in the end to grab the win coming off of a rough week.
“I think we cost ourselves three goals with some bad decisions, throw-ins and right off the bat going backwards instead of playing it out,” Hines said. ”Then it caused us a problem giving up that goal early and made the game a little more complicated, but I thought we had the majority of the ball, the majority of the opportunities. Just coming off of a little bit of being sick… we haven’t really practiced much, but we were determined to get it and I think that was good.”
Towards the end of the game Owensboro Catholic’s conditioning helped them be able to attack more offensively, something that Hines said they worked on after players had strep throat, mono and other illnesses in the past week.
“Crazy is we ran last Thursday and we ran last Friday because we literally hadn’t practiced since Tuesday,” Hines said. “When we played Tuesday we had 13 girls, we had three starters out and we had one of the starters out all the way through the weekend and came back on Monday. I didn’t know where we’d be condition wise, but we did do some running especially when we didn’t feel good and I do think that paid off a little bit.”
The Lady Aces now sit at 7-2-1 overall and 5-0 in district play with a three-game winning streak under their belt, now looking ahead to a road matchup next Tuesday against South Oldham at 7 p.m. Before then, Hines expects them to shore some things up in practice while working on getting completely healthy as the latter half of the season continues.
“I think we know that we’re still not 100%,” Hines said. “I think that we know we made this game complicated and we’ll go back and watch it on film down the road, especially when getting into district time and just clean up some of that. We’re a good team when we move the ball and turf makes it a little different game tonight too. I think down the road, we just have to continue to build our confidence.”
Daviess County on the other hand falls to 7-4 overall and 3-2 in district play, as they will look to tighten some things up in practice before a tough road contest against Ohio County at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.
“We’ve bounced back in a couple of games against good teams and we’ve got a couple of things we obviously need to fix at certain points in the game,” Sandifer said. “I’m pretty sure the girls will work on it and we’ll try to figure it out and hopefully we’ll get better for it.”
