L-C advances to sectional finals; down Lady Dragons 5-0

     DODSONVILLE – The tournament road continues for the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs in the ’09 season as they defeated the West Union Dragons 5-0 Monday night at Lynchburg-Clay High School in the girls soccer Division II SE District Sectional Semifinals.

     The Lady Mustangs out shot the Lady Dragons 35-2 for the entire game.

     “It was a slow start for us,” Lynchburg-Clay coach Dennis West said. “We had to wait around for officials and it put us behind for a little while.”

     After the Lady Mustangs warmed up in the first half, they didn’t let up for the remainder of the game.

     L-C scored one goal in the first half with sophomore Karen Hilt scoring the goal for the 1-0 advantage.

     Things heated up for the Lady Mustangs in the second half with four goals coming in the 30 minute half.

     L-C senior Alex Baker gave the No. 2 seeded Lady Mustangs a two-goal lead with a kick into the back of the net, with the assist credited to freshman Taylor Scott at the 27:07 mark of the second half.

     On a strange turn of events in the sectional contest, junior midfielder Meredith Fittro was credited with her goal after the West Union keeper caught the ball (kicked by Fittro), but was inside the goal while stopping the kick attempt.

     The Lady Mustangs put no doubt who the better of the two teams were when they added another goal to their advantage with 9:24 left in regulation, when  junior Lindsey Rosselott scored off a pass from sophomore forward Brooke Hertlein.

     The final goal came with just 1:43 remaining when Hilt put a stamp on the win with her second goal of the game for the 5-0 lead.

     “(Karen) Hilt played really hard for us,” West said. “She is having a good sophomore season and was named All-SHL. She is the best player on the field, and can break people down and put the ball up with some zip.”

     L-C junior keeper Shelbi Halverson had 10 saves against the Lady Dragons.

     The win improves the Lady Mustangs to 9-6-1 overall.

     West still wants to see improvement from the Lady Mustang offense.

     “I don’t know what is going on with our offense, we weren’t really motivated (Monday),” West said. “We lost focus and had poor shots in the first half, but we came out in the second half and delivered. We played much better and kept the pressure on. We must have a much stronger effort Thursday.”

     The sectional finals will take play this Thursday at 5 p.m. when L-C hosts county rival and No. 3 seed Fairfield. The Lady Lions were winners over the North Adams Lady Green Devils Monday at Fairfield High School.

SCORE BY HALF

WUHS – 0 0 – 0

LCHS – 1 4 – 5