The Lady Aces defense shut down Daviess County on Wednesday night, not allowing a single shot to win 1-0 and secure their third straight 9th District Championship.
Owensboro Catholic came out of the gates aggressive, looking to set the tone early with a goal. It wasn’t until the sixth minute that the Lady Aces got the first shot of the contest, but senior Maddie Hayden’s shot was headed away by senior Brooke Schwartz of Daviess County.
Owensboro Catholic proceeded to battle the Lady Panthers throughout the first half, but failed to chip on a barrage of corner kicks. The Lady Aces’ most threatening chance however, came in the final minute of the first half with chaos in the box.
A clearance turned through ball by senior Katie Riney thanks to a few nifty moves had her open in the middle of the box. She ripped one with her right foot, but Daviess County freshman keeper Kaelin Labhart deflected the shot.
Owensboro Catholic nearly cleaned up the rebound with a second shot, but Labhart stopped it while lying down with her feet before corralling it on a third attempt by the Lady Aces. Vaughn’s willingness to lay out and cover up the ball amidst flying feet kept the game scoreless, sending the 9th District Championship into halftime at 0-0.
But Owensboro Catholic was finally able to break through in the 50th minute thanks to a free kick creating a scoring opportunity. Nothing came off the free kick, but the Lady Aces retained possession in the right corner and were able to get the ball in the box.
Junior Mallory Bailey sent it in with a cross and sophomore Kate McCain for the Lady Panthers tried to block it. But she was only able to tip it, as junior Ginny Young was able to get it and punch it in from a few feet out to make it 1-0 Owensboro Catholic early in the second half.
Daviess County was able to string together counters repeatedly throughout the second half, but just seemed a pass away from putting themselves into position to score. This is something Head Coach David Sandifer said they will need to improve on going forward.
“The last ball is always the most critical ball and there were times where we should’ve been able to play a ball and it just didn’t work out,” Sandifer said. “We played it into the wrong area or something like that. The last ball has to be better. We have to have a little more quality there.”
This deficiency on the offensive side of the pitch resulted in the Lady Panthers not getting a single shot off in the match, ultimately falling 1-0 to Owensboro Catholic in the 9th District Championship. Sandifer said that they’ll take the next few days to improve on their movement and offensive efficiency, looking to be in form when they compete in the 3rd Region Tournament that opens up play on Monday at Apollo.
“I think they beat us to some balls that we probably shouldn’t have let them beat us to,” Sandifer said. “We have to generate some offense somehow. We were able to do it during the regular season, so I don’t know if it was pressure or what… Hopefully we’ll figure something out by Monday for the first round of the region tournament and we’ll go from there.”
The Lady Aces celebrate their third straight 9th District Championship on the other hand, showing out defensively with Young’s lone goal being the deciding factor. Junior keeper Abby Payne also earned her 12th shutout of the season, helping them kickstart what Owensboro Catholic hopes will be a long postseason run.
“I think we’re feeling pretty good,” Head Coach Andy Hines said. “I don’t even know if we even allowed a shot really. I think that was kind of our goal to get a shutout and eliminate a shot and I think we did that. We changed a little bit of our stuff up and took away one of our attacking players. I think we were a little tired tonight, but we overcame it and fought through it.”
Owensboro Catholic had control of the possession battle for the vast majority of the game, something that they’ve been working on with sophomore Aubrey Randolph now playing striker. Hines said they missed some opportunities to create more goals in their time with the ball, but was pleased with how his team battled with a tough Lady Panthers team.
“Daviess County comes to play us,” Hines said. “You watch the game against Owensboro and you turn around and watch the game against us and they fight hard. They dig in and they get into tackles with us. I think we’ve gotten a little tougher this year, where I think maybe last year or the year before we would’ve lost that game just because we weren’t as tough… I think that makes a big difference.”
Hines said that this is the sixth district title in the program, with the three-peat highlighting their success in recent years. With the goal of a 3rd Region Championship now on the brain going into next week, Hines wants to help his team be in their best shape and fine tune things in order to bring home some more hardware.
“I think we just gotta get a little bit healthier,” Hines said. “I think we’re still a little banged up in different ways coming from way back… So just getting healthy, working a little bit on our fitness because we’ve had some down time and just improving the quality of our chances. Especially with the turf.”
