Lynchburg-Clay bows out of regional semifinals to end season

CHILLICOTHE — The Division V Regional Semifinal at Herrnstein Field in Chillicothe on Tuesday became the final destination of the 2024 Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs’ season.

Unable to gain momentum on offense, the Lady Mustangs lost to the Minford Lady Falcons by a 3-1 score, as all the scoring occurred in the first half.

Earlier this season, in the season opener, LCHS lost to Minford by a 2-1 score.

“It's very similar to the first game we played in the regular season,” Lynchburg-Clay head coach Dennis West said. “Minford comes at you hard with a lot of speed and tenacity up front. We saw that again tonight.

“They are just fast and physical, and they just keep the pressure on you from the start to the end of the game, and that's what happened tonight. We didn't play poorly, but we just couldn't get anything going, really, to sustain any kind of offense.”

The scoring started early with Lynchburg-Clay leading 1-0 off an own goal by Minford on a save that bounced away with 31:44 left on the clock in the first half.

From there, it was all Minford scoring in the first half, with the score being tied at 1-1 off a breakaway goal by Minford’s Lexi Pendleton with 25:59 on the first half clock.

Next came a Minford goal to the left corner of the net with 18:02 left in the first half off a kick by Maggie Risner with the assist by Sadie Tieman.

The 2-1 lead then went to a two-goal lead as Lexi Conkel put the ball – with a strong kick — into the back of the net with 3:55 for a 3-1 Lady Falcon lead off a pass by Risner, as that was the score when time ran off the clock in the first half.

The first half also saw LCHS with a few chances to gain another goal, but shots were just off and stopped by the defense of the Lady Falcons.

LC also had a corner kick with 4:17 left in the first half, but it was also stopped by the defense of Minford.

Once halftime was finished, the second half was scoreless by both teams, as each team had opportunities to add to their side of the scoreboard, but each defense stepped up and didn't allow a goal.

The second half saw LCHS with a corner kick chance at the 30:55 mark, but it was again kicked away from the goal by the defense of Minford.

Seniors for the Lady Mustangs are Addie Downing, Jayden Maxfield, Aubrey Slack, Miranda Smith, Olivia Van Fleet, Allie Waits and Haidyn Wolfe.

“It's just tough for the seniors,” West said. “This group is really close. I told them in the huddle after the game that they showed a lot of leadership, especially to the younger kids on the team.”

The senior class were a part of four district champion teams, and they played in four regional tournaments.

“You don't see many schools that go to one [regional tournament], let alone four,” West said. “The only ones that hadn't gone to regional tournaments were the freshmen, and now they can check that off their list, because now they've gone to it.

“We have expectations, and they follow through on them, and when they work hard like they did all year, this is where you end up. Unfortunately for us, it didn't end the way we wanted, but again, we're one of 16 teams in the state Division V that got here, so you can't hang your head too much on that kind of response by the kids.”

The ‘24 season of the Lady Mustangs included them adding another Southern Hills Athletic Conference championship with a conference record of 5-0-1, extending their SHAC non-loss (including ties) streak to 98 consecutive games.

“They've far exceeded what a lot of people thought that they would be able to do this year,” West said. “We graduated two really big classes over the last two years, and four all-state players among those two classes, and it's tough to replace them.

“I think a lot of people just looked at this and thought, ‘well, it’s going to be a year where we don't have high expectations,’ but that wasn't the case. This group played hard, won another SHAC title, won another district title, and I'm just proud of them. They just worked hard.”

This season, the Lady Mustangs scored 59 goals and allowed 24. With Tuesday’s win, Minford improves to 17-2-0 overall.

Lynchburg-Clay finishes with an overall record of 11-7-2.

“I’ve had teams in the past where you just had little cliques here, there and yonder, and that's tough. Those are really tough years to coach,” West said. “But I didn't have any of that with this group. They work well together, and it showed.”

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