Lady Falcons hand Hillsboro first loss
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
The road to the South Central Ohio League girls soccer championship may well have to go through Clarksville.
The defending SCOL girls soccer champion Clinton-Massie Lady Falcons handed the Hillsboro Lady Indians their first loss of the season, 3-1 Tuesday at Richards Memorial Field.
CM scored once in the first half and twice in the second half, with Hillsboro scoring their lone goal late in the final 40 minute period.
Following the game, without their coaches stopping them, members of the Lady Falcon team rang the Hillsboro Victory Bell.
The game was Hillsboro's most physical of the season, with one player from each team receiving a yellow card late in the second half.
"Clinton-Massie is a quality team, and up to this point, we hadn't played anyone up to that caliber," Hillsboro coach Leslie Molen said. "On our behalf, we are young, and some of the girls aren't ready to play at that type of speed or are ready to play at that physical of a level when we play a team like Massie."
The Lady Falcons led by three goals until the 7:16 mark of the second half when Ashleigh Bagshaw had a short, put back goal. The goal came right after the Massie keeper made a save. The assist was credited to Leah Pence.
"Ashleigh's goal gave us some momentum," Molen said. "We didn't get dominated, but we didn't capitalize on a few chances, either. We have to keep competing and not throw opportunities away."
As for the aforementioned yellow cards, they came with 6:45 left in the second half as both teams started to increase the physicality of an already physical game.
CM came close to scoring their fourth goal on two separate occasions late in the contest, but Hillsboro keeper Sara Sexton stopped one of the attempts with 2:16 remaining, keeping the Hillsboro chances of a comeback alive.
"We played better in the second half, but we just have to continue to get the experience we need to play against teams like Clinton-Massie," Molen said.
The Lady Indians missed out on some opportunities to add to their scoring total.
HHS had an opportunity to score with a direct kick, but the ball sailed over the top of the goal with 1:30 remaining.
Sexton finished with 17 saves for HHS.
The loss drops HHS to a 2-1 overall record. HHS has the same SCOL record as they have not yet played a non-league match.
HHS will travel to play McClain on Thursday in SCOL play.
BOX SCORE
CMHS 1 2 — 3
HHS 0 1 — 1
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