Sierra Benney’s 5 goals lead Lynchburg-Clay past Fairfield en route to perfect SHAC season
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
DODSONVILLE — Lynchburg-Clay senior Sierra Benney joined elite company on Wednesday night, and the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs returned to the top of the Southern Hills Athletic Conference after a one-year absence.
In what was a 7-1 win over the Fairfield Lady Lions on Wednesday on senior night at LCHS, host Lynchburg-Clay not only finished with a 7-0-0 record in the SHAC this season — earning the gold ball trophy — but they saw Benney tie the girls soccer goals in a game record.
Benney scored five goals in the victory, joining Peyton Scott as the only two girls soccer players to achieve that feat in program history. Scott scored her five goals in a game Oct. 15, 2018, also against Fairfield.
The seven conference wins by LCHS move their undefeated SHAC streak to a record of 71-0-3 dating back to 2010.
LCHS has now won the SHAC title in nine of the past 10 seasons, with eight of those seasons being a perfect 7-0-0 in conference play.
On Wednesday, LCHS played without six varsity players due to COVID-19 quarantines.
“I was a nervous wreck up at 4:30 in the morning thinking about this game,” LCHS head coach Dennis West said. “We were talking yesterday about how to move people around to cover spots, knowing there were going to be some girls out there that were going to be playing some big minutes who normally don’t play those big minutes.
“They did tonight, and they played well. Fairfield is playing well, and they have some really tough people to try to defend. They are really quick up front, and we just got great play out of all 18 girls who were out here tonight, especially the ones back on defense.”
Some of those defensive players included: Sophia Balon, Jenna Waits, Ella Barber, Gabby Rose, Allie Etienne, Ella Berry, Kenzie Morgan, McKenna Roads, Jennifer Zwiesler and Elizabeth Moberly, all of whom played “big-time” minutes, according to West.
As for the win on Wednesday, even with the five goals by Benney, the first goal on the scoreboard for LCHS was an own goal by Fairfield, putting LCHS ahead 1-0 with 36:39 left on the first-half clock.
Then came the domination by Benney, as her first goal of the Highland County rivalry match came with 32:06 on the clock as she scored a goal off a cross-kick by Raelynn Ruble for the two-goal advantage.
Fairfield scored their only goal of the match with 25:30 on the clock as Kennedy Zink put the ball in the back of the net with the help of an assist from Cadence Saunders at the 25:30 mark of the half.
Benney — who now has 14 goals this season — made it a 3-1 lead with a header goal at the 11:27 mark, as this time the senior was assisted by Karlie Tipton off a corner kick.
“We are young, and once we battled back to get that goal, we were really working hard,” FHS head coach Jacob Alexander said. “After that corner kick they had, you could see the physical change in our team.
“Again, we are young, and we need to learn from that, and it is just one of those things where Lynchburg-Clay is a more experienced team than we are. Hopefully next year we can come back and play them and show a better result.”
Just a few seconds later, the same scenario repeated itself when Benney added another goal with the assist by Tipton off a corner kick with 11:21 left in the first half for a 4-1 lead that stood until halftime.
In the second half, the Lady Mustangs (12-4-0) added three more goals with Benney adding to her first-half hat trick by scoring a fourth goal with 35:54 remaining in the conference match off a free kick by Tiah McLean, who gained the assist with 35:54 on the clock, for a 5-1 lead.
Twelve seconds later, Lynchburg-Clay’s Tipton made the lead five goals with a goal assisted by Paige Flowers off a through ball to put the score at 6-1.
The final goal for the Lady Mustangs was a record-tying goal as Benney put the ball in the back of the net with another header, this time assisted by Ruble (with a corner kick) with 23:53 remaining in the match for the 7-1 lead.
“I told one of the kids when they asked how many goals Sierra had, and I said ‘she has five, and that’s the limit,” West said. “We’ve only had one other player score five in my coaching career, and that was Peyton Scott, and that was because she scored the fifth goal before the sub could get in the game.
“Sierra, she scored off corner kicks, free kicks, and all her shots came four yards away from the goal. She’s had a heck of a senior year, and the second half of this season has been nuts. Sierra is becoming an offensive force for us on any type of set play.
“She’s (Benney) just turning into someone that makes our corners and set plays hard to defend. She has good instincts about being in the right spot, and tonight she was on.”
Lynchburg-Clay’s win improves their overall record to 12-4-0 overall this season. In SHAC play for the 2020 season, LCHS outscored their opponents, 46-3 in seven games. In all 16 regular-season games this season, LC has outscored opponents, 62-13.
Next for LCHS is the 2020 Sectional Finals, as they are the No. 1 team in the district and will host the winner of No. 16 Fairland and No. 17 Piketon on Thursday, Oct. 22 at LCHS with a start of 5 p.m.
“I was more nervous about this game than they were,” West said. “They were confident about the abilities that they have and the abilities of their teammates to step in and fill in. They were excited after this game, and at the end they were fired up to get that clean slate in the league and get the gold ball back.
“Congratulations to them, and to all the kids who weren’t here … it was just a tremendous night for our soccer program.”
Fairfield (10-5-0) will next play on Thursday, Oct. 22 as they are a No. 7 seed and will host the No. 10 seeded Southeastern Lady Panthers at 5 p.m. at FHS.
“We are happy with our season, and it is a year where we wanted to put up good results, but we really weren’t sure what we were going to have because we are so young,” Alexander said. “We have two seniors, and our two leading points players are juniors, and on defense we have two freshmen, a sophomore and a rotation of a sophomore and senior that start on the back line.
“We’ll learn and get better, and we have a sophomore goalkeeper. We hope to fix some of our errors before the tournament, and then go forward from there as we continue to grow.”
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In what was a 7-1 win over the Fairfield Lady Lions on Wednesday on senior night at LCHS, host Lynchburg-Clay not only finished with a 7-0-0 record in the SHAC this season — earning the gold ball trophy — but they saw Benney tie the girls soccer goals in a game record.
Benney scored five goals in the victory, joining Peyton Scott as the only two girls soccer players to achieve that feat in program history. Scott scored her five goals in a game Oct. 15, 2018, also against Fairfield.
The seven conference wins by LCHS move their undefeated SHAC streak to a record of 71-0-3 dating back to 2010.
LCHS has now won the SHAC title in nine of the past 10 seasons, with eight of those seasons being a perfect 7-0-0 in conference play.
On Wednesday, LCHS played without six varsity players due to COVID-19 quarantines.
“I was a nervous wreck up at 4:30 in the morning thinking about this game,” LCHS head coach Dennis West said. “We were talking yesterday about how to move people around to cover spots, knowing there were going to be some girls out there that were going to be playing some big minutes who normally don’t play those big minutes.
“They did tonight, and they played well. Fairfield is playing well, and they have some really tough people to try to defend. They are really quick up front, and we just got great play out of all 18 girls who were out here tonight, especially the ones back on defense.”
Some of those defensive players included: Sophia Balon, Jenna Waits, Ella Barber, Gabby Rose, Allie Etienne, Ella Berry, Kenzie Morgan, McKenna Roads, Jennifer Zwiesler and Elizabeth Moberly, all of whom played “big-time” minutes, according to West.
As for the win on Wednesday, even with the five goals by Benney, the first goal on the scoreboard for LCHS was an own goal by Fairfield, putting LCHS ahead 1-0 with 36:39 left on the first-half clock.
Then came the domination by Benney, as her first goal of the Highland County rivalry match came with 32:06 on the clock as she scored a goal off a cross-kick by Raelynn Ruble for the two-goal advantage.
Fairfield scored their only goal of the match with 25:30 on the clock as Kennedy Zink put the ball in the back of the net with the help of an assist from Cadence Saunders at the 25:30 mark of the half.
Benney — who now has 14 goals this season — made it a 3-1 lead with a header goal at the 11:27 mark, as this time the senior was assisted by Karlie Tipton off a corner kick.
“We are young, and once we battled back to get that goal, we were really working hard,” FHS head coach Jacob Alexander said. “After that corner kick they had, you could see the physical change in our team.
“Again, we are young, and we need to learn from that, and it is just one of those things where Lynchburg-Clay is a more experienced team than we are. Hopefully next year we can come back and play them and show a better result.”
Just a few seconds later, the same scenario repeated itself when Benney added another goal with the assist by Tipton off a corner kick with 11:21 left in the first half for a 4-1 lead that stood until halftime.
In the second half, the Lady Mustangs (12-4-0) added three more goals with Benney adding to her first-half hat trick by scoring a fourth goal with 35:54 remaining in the conference match off a free kick by Tiah McLean, who gained the assist with 35:54 on the clock, for a 5-1 lead.
Twelve seconds later, Lynchburg-Clay’s Tipton made the lead five goals with a goal assisted by Paige Flowers off a through ball to put the score at 6-1.
The final goal for the Lady Mustangs was a record-tying goal as Benney put the ball in the back of the net with another header, this time assisted by Ruble (with a corner kick) with 23:53 remaining in the match for the 7-1 lead.
“I told one of the kids when they asked how many goals Sierra had, and I said ‘she has five, and that’s the limit,” West said. “We’ve only had one other player score five in my coaching career, and that was Peyton Scott, and that was because she scored the fifth goal before the sub could get in the game.
“Sierra, she scored off corner kicks, free kicks, and all her shots came four yards away from the goal. She’s had a heck of a senior year, and the second half of this season has been nuts. Sierra is becoming an offensive force for us on any type of set play.
“She’s (Benney) just turning into someone that makes our corners and set plays hard to defend. She has good instincts about being in the right spot, and tonight she was on.”
Lynchburg-Clay’s win improves their overall record to 12-4-0 overall this season. In SHAC play for the 2020 season, LCHS outscored their opponents, 46-3 in seven games. In all 16 regular-season games this season, LC has outscored opponents, 62-13.
Next for LCHS is the 2020 Sectional Finals, as they are the No. 1 team in the district and will host the winner of No. 16 Fairland and No. 17 Piketon on Thursday, Oct. 22 at LCHS with a start of 5 p.m.
“I was more nervous about this game than they were,” West said. “They were confident about the abilities that they have and the abilities of their teammates to step in and fill in. They were excited after this game, and at the end they were fired up to get that clean slate in the league and get the gold ball back.
“Congratulations to them, and to all the kids who weren’t here … it was just a tremendous night for our soccer program.”
Fairfield (10-5-0) will next play on Thursday, Oct. 22 as they are a No. 7 seed and will host the No. 10 seeded Southeastern Lady Panthers at 5 p.m. at FHS.
“We are happy with our season, and it is a year where we wanted to put up good results, but we really weren’t sure what we were going to have because we are so young,” Alexander said. “We have two seniors, and our two leading points players are juniors, and on defense we have two freshmen, a sophomore and a rotation of a sophomore and senior that start on the back line.
“We’ll learn and get better, and we have a sophomore goalkeeper. We hope to fix some of our errors before the tournament, and then go forward from there as we continue to grow.”
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