.jpg)
Avery maintained its undefeated record at 3-0 on the young season in winning its conference opener on Monday night against Owen by a 1-0 final score.
The teams played to a scoreless first half, and the contest appeared headed to overtime. But senior Katie Peters picked up the lone goal of the match on a picture-perfect crossing blast from 15 yards out with five minutes remaining.
"We controlled the whole ballgame. They may have had only 2 or 3 shots on goal. We told the team at halftime that the way Owen would beat us would be if we made mistakes, and that we needed to make sure to not make mistakes, and that we would beat them by attacking the goal as we had done throughout the first half," Avery coach Tom Evaul said after the win. "We got the one goal we needed from Katie, who often seems to turn and shoot a ball that goes about anywhere but where she wants it to go. When she turned to shoot I thought it might go over toward the activity bus or somewhere, but she must have turned herself just perfectly as she shot a beautiful shot into the goal. It was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of shot, but we're thrilled with the goal and for the win."
Avery's young squad continues to show great talent and chemistry should do nothing but continue to improve as the season goes on.
"The young girls have stepped up and that has made our experienced players feel comfortable with what we have on the field and confident with them," the coach added. "We didn't have this chemistry last year or the year before. We're adding a couple of more players Tuesday which should really help us offensively, and I'm really pleased with how the girls are communicating and enjoying playing the game together."
The win gives the Lady Vikings its second-best start to a season in program history, and the team looks to keep up its winning ways going with two more matches this week, on Wednesday at West Wilkes and on Saturday at Watauga. (NOTE: The scheduled time for the West Wilkes match is currently set at 6 pm, but the time MAY be changed to 5 p.m. We'll try to pass along the correct time for the start of that match as soon as we get confirmation on it).
