Fleming County’s Kalea Hamilton battles for possession with an East Carter player, Wednesday, during the 16th Region championship in Morehead. (Evan Dennison, The Ledger Independent)
HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER
Fleming County’s MaKayla Burnette tries to get past East Carter defenders Addison Tiller (21) and Olivia Seasor (14). (Evan Dennison, The Ledger Independent)
MOREHEAD – While it wasn’t the result they wanted, it continued to be a step in the right direction for the Fleming County girls’ soccer program.
Making their first ever regional championship appearance, the Lady Panthers fell short, 3-0 to East Carter in the 16th Region Championship game.
Polar opposite to the 5-4 East Carter victory in Flemingsburg on October 2, the Lady Raiders stifled Lady Panthers star Haylee Applegate and company, holding them to just three shots all game.
“Couldn’t get anything going offensively which has been our strong suit all year. Credit to East Carter, they did a great job playing defense on us,” Lady Panthers coach Dallas Hicks said. “Their midfield is so strong, we couldn’t get comfortable in our offense without worrying about counter attacks quickly.”
Fleming was able to hold East at bay for a while until freshman Ellie Thomas snuck one past a diving Hadlee Hazelrigg to make it 1-0 in the 28th minute.
The real threats from Fleming came earlier than that, when Applegate put two promising shots on net, but Lady Raiders keeper Brayleigh Boggs deflected them away.
The two would stay tight at 1-0 at halftime, the Lady Panthers able to thwart any Lady Raider attacks in the closing minutes of the half.
Then East Carter locked down.
“We talked about Haylee Applegate, she’s a great player and we talked about staying in front of her. Defense as a unit, one defender can’t guard a good player like that, it has to take a team and think we did a great job defending as a unit,” Walker said. “We know she could hit a ball anywhere on the field and they caught us off guard with their speed on the outside so we worked on that a little bit, having our outside mids get back.”
They didn’t allow a shot on goal the final 40 minutes, Emersyn Elliott scoring on a shot from outside the box in the 54th minute, Avery Hall putting the game away in the 67th minute after a cross to the long side of the box.
Walker, a geometry teacher, appreciated the angles his team used to get that last one.
“Equilateral triangle. Just making those angles just in general. Think that kind of showed our passing ability,” Walker said.
They’ll now head on to play in the substate round of the state tournament against the 12th Region winner, Southwestern or West Jessamine. This was the Lady Raiders program second ever regional title, winning in 2011 when it was the 11th Region.
Fleming County’s season ends at 14-8, their second most wins in a season in program history. For a program that got started up in 2004 and won eight games from 2004-09, they continue to climb the ladder, last year winning their first ever district championship, this year repeating as the 61st District champion and winning just their second ever regional tournament game.
“We’re getting there. Overall not the result we wanted. Building blocks,” Hicks said.
They’ll have to replace six seniors, including their most prolific and one of the state’s all-time scorers in Applegate, ending her high school career with 169 goals and 50 in her senior season.
“Haylee is a legend to this program. Got to fill her shoes quickly,” Hicks said.
But they do return quite a bit, including six freshman who started in Wednesday night’s championship tilt.
“We’re good. We were just young. With having such a strong group of freshman, I want to build that camaraderie back up with our juniors and seniors. A couple we’ll bring up from eighth grade that have some talent. Work on some possession, tactics of the game. I think that’s where we fall off a little bit,” Hicks said. “Brought in 10 freshman this year. We’re building a program.”
LADY RAIDERS 3, LADY PANTHERS 0
FLEMING COUNTY – 0-0 — 0
EAST CARTER – 1-2 — 3
Game Stats
Goals: East Carter – Thomas (28’), Elliott (54’), Hall (67’)
Shots (On Goal): Fleming 3 (3), East Carter 17 (12)
Corner Kicks: Fleming 3, East Carter 8
Fouls: Fleming 8, East Carter 9
Offsides: Fleming 0, East Carter 0
Saves: Fleming 9 (Hazelrigg), East Carter 3 (Boggs)
Records: Fleming County 14-8, East Carter 18-1-2
