The Avery Lady Vikings took a while to get things going against the Owen Warlassies, with a lot of almost scoring drives occurring before they got a ball in the back of the net.
Wearing their road red, since they have no St. Patrick green to wear, the Vikings got their first score in the 20th minute when stopper Katelynn Eudy proved that offense starts with the defense. Actually in soccer, defense is the responsibility of everyone on the field; however, in this case the defender was the first to score. Midfielder Mary Chesnut Smith assisted Eudy on the first score. Avery was not to get on the board again until the closing minutes of the first half.
In the 36th minute, forward Melinda Eggers sent a ball across the face of the goal with such power that the Warlassies defense was not able to stop the ball, but had it bounce off the defender into the goal. If the defender had not gotten in the way, forward Jennie Elrod was in place to tap the ball in.
After a halftime talk with several areas on to work on, the coaching staff was alarmed when the Lady Vikings came out flat in the second half. With several early scoring chances, the Vikings couldn’t finish any of them. Although the Vikings continued to dominate, keeping the ball in their possession more often than not, it wasn’t until the 64th minute that the Lady Vikings were able to score again. Defender Megan Robbins passed the ball to Smith, who was able to work her way through several defenders and put the ball behind the keeper. This score helped in part to make up for a shot earlier by Smith which hit the goal post and bounced away from the goal instead of into the goal.
This ended the scoring by the Vikings in the contest, but the defense kept the Warlassies out of the goal all night. The final score was 3-0, with another shutout for junior first-year keeper Mercedes Bentley, her third of the young season. The Vikings took 16 shots on goal in the first half and 21 in the second half. Bentley had 8 saves on the evening with the other three Warlassies shots going wide.
Next week the Lady Vikings will play two key conference games. They will host conference newcomer Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy, who upset Hendersonville earlier this week, on Monday, March 22nd, and will host Hendersonville on Thursday, March 25th, both games at 6 p.m. The team then hits the road on Friday the 26th to take on West Caldwell.
(Special thanks to Serena Smith for text and photos)
