McClain Lady Tigers clinch first FAC soccer championship

GREENFIELD — The McClain Lady Tigers made history Tuesday night(Sept. 30) on their home field when they defeated Frontier Athletic Conference foe Miami Trace, 4-1 and capturing McClain’s first-ever girls soccer championship.

The Lady Tigers are currently 7-0-2 in the FAC and will host Hillsboro on Thursday night in Greenfield at McClain for a chance at an undefeated FAC title in their final conference game of the season.  

Whatever the result on Thursday McClain will still be conference champions because both Miami Trace and Jackson both have two losses in the FAC.

Another thing that made this victory even more special was winning the FAC championship in front of their fans at home.

“This is the first time ever that a McClain girls team has won a soccer league title,” McClain head coach Blain Bergstrom said after the match. “I’ve got nine seniors this year and seven of them played varsity all four years, so we have a lot of girls that have played together for a long time.”

It was a defensive battle over the first 20 minutes of the opening half by two very talented and athletic squads with lots of experience.

The Lady Panthers controlled the ball for most of that first 20 minutes, but the McClain defensive back four and senior first-year goal keeper Leah Lovett played admirably.

“Our defense played exceptionally well,” Bergstrom said. “They worked really well together. Those four seniors in the back have played really well for us all year and they were able to keep them out of the goal until the very end.”

Senior Mylie Lovett scored the first goal of the game off a deflection, and moments later junior Paisley Pryor found the back of the net at the 6:18 mark giving the Lady Tigers a 2-0 advantage.

“I told our girls that those first 20 minutes tonight were not our first 20 minutes because they’ve outplayed us,” Bergstrom said. “But, I looked at them and said, guess what … the score is still 0-0 and we haven’t played our best so the next 20 minutes we got a couple of goals in and the momentum swung a little more to our side.”

In the second half McClain seemed to continue to play hard and aggressively which seemed to wear down the Lady Panthers.

Larah Henson netted the Lady Tigers’ third goal on a long shot at the 27:56 mark of the second half, and senior Addison Olaker found the back of the net with just 15:40 remaining, giving McClain a little breathing room and a 4-0 lead.

The Lady Panthers scored their lone goal with just seconds remaining.

“Offensively, I thought we took advantage at opportune times to score goals especially in the second half when they had just three players in the back so we were able to attack a little more and that’s why you saw more shots from us,” Bergstrom said. “They were on the attack and needed to score down 2-0, so that gave us some opportunities to get some shots and I thought we made some excellent plays.

“Miami Trace is well-coached and they play extremely hard and most of their girls have played together for a very long time. Tonight, we just made the goals when we had to and won here at home and held serve like you’re supposed to do.”

McClain 11-1-2 overall and (7-0-2) FAC entertains Hillsboro on Thursday, Oct. 2 then finishes the regular season with another home matchup with Fairfield on Monday, Oct. 6 when senior night will be observed.  Both matches will start at 5 p.m.