Lady Tigers gain season sweep over Hillsboro

HILLSBORO  — For the first time in program history, the McClain Lady Tigers soccer team gained a regular-season sweep over the Hillsboro Lady Indians, as they completed the second leg of that accomplishment Thursday night by a 2-1 score.

The road win by McClain — as the two teams battled in the rain — at Hillsboro saw the Lady Tigers score both goals in the first half.

Their first-half goals were Mylie Lovett with the first goal, as she was assisted by Addison Olaker. McClain’s second goal was scored by Luca Matesic off a throw-in, which was thrown by Larah Henson for the assist.

“We started off 2-0, and then they got one on us late in the second half. It was a good, complete team effort all the way around,” MHS head coach Blain Bergstrom said. “Conditions of course made it difficult for everybody. It's a fast field to start with, and then you put water on it and it makes it even crazier. I’m proud of the team, proud of everybody up and down the field.

“It was an excellent, excellent team win. Not only did we beat Hillsboro with the senior class for the first time, but now we beat them twice this year. We’ve never beat them before.”

HHS attempted a comeback, scoring a goal in the second half by Peighton Bledsoe, with the assist by Addison Miles.

Coach Bergstom spoke about how important sweeping Hillsboro is for the program moving forward.

“It’s awesome. It's wonderful. They've developed over the years,” he said. “We have our Little League G-SAY program that continues to improve, and then they go through to middle school and high school. We only had two seniors [Luca Matesic and Kaitlyn Jett], and these are the only two girls that started as freshmen, and now they're all the way through. We're continuing to build that program, and hopefully it continues moving forward.

“We are 5-3-2 (in the FAC). Our three losses are two to Jackson, one to Chillicothe. We’re trying to improve. We are 5-1-1 over our last seven games, so we continue to get better, and we’ve got four games left in the season.

“It's a great team effort,” Bergstrom continued. “It's not always about the offensive end of things, but it's also the defense — the goalie, I mean, everybody up and down the field, the midfield. It doesn't matter at the end of the day who scores the goals and gets the assists. It’s a team game, you’ve got 11 people on the field and they all have to contribute. You have to have that soccer IQ to know that you’re ahead, keep the ball on their end, play the corners and we ended up winning.”

Hillsboro now stands at 6-9-0 overall and 5-5-0 in the FAC.

The Lady Tigers improved to 6-4-2 overall and 5-3-2 in the FAC standings with the win over HHS. They also defeated Southeastern, 6-0 Saturday in nonconference play.

The MHS girls team has three games left in the regular season, as they will face Fairfield on Monday, Oct. 9 at 5 p.m. at home. Next will be a game on Tuesday, Oct. 10 at 5 p.m. at Peebles, and then a third game will be played on Wednesday, Oct. 11 at home against Westfall at 5 p.m.

HHS is scheduled to play on Thursday, Oct. 12 at home against Piketon at 5:30 p.m.