Mason County’s Chloe Cracraft (22) dribbles down the field while Pendleton County’s Jamie Danna (28) defends. (Evan Dennison, The Ledger Independent)

Mason County’s Chloe Cracraft (22) dribbles down the field while Pendleton County’s Jamie Danna (28) defends. (Evan Dennison, The Ledger Independent)

HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER

<p>Mason County’s Sarah Payne attempts a pass during Monday’s contest with Pendleton County in the 38th District semifinals. (Evan Dennison, The Ledger Independent)</p>

Mason County’s Sarah Payne attempts a pass during Monday’s contest with Pendleton County in the 38th District semifinals. (Evan Dennison, The Ledger Independent)

Mason County came into the district tournament with high hopes of having their district title drought ending.

But those hopes were dashed on Monday in a 3-1 defeat to Pendleton County, effectively ending their season in the semifinals of the 38th District Tournament.

The Lady Royals had defeated all three district opponents in the regular season, not surrendering a goal in the three matches against Harrison County, St. Patrick and Pendleton County.

But less than seven minutes into Monday’s semifinal, Lady Cats Cailyn Harper put an end to the Lady Royals shutout streak as Pendleton struck first.

“That was my last point before they went out on the field. I said let’s get one early and put the pressure on them. All the pressure was on them coming into this game I felt like,” Lady Cats coach Aaron Harper said. “They beat us in the regular season, beat everyone in the regular season. So I wanted to get the upper hand right off the bat, tried to jump on it and then let them dictate the game and luckily we got one in the first half so it felt good.”

While the Lady Royals controlled possession and were on the attack with eight shots in the first half, none of them really threatened Pendleton keeper Elissa Blackaby with five first half saves.

“Felt like we definitely dominated the game,” Lady Royals coach Amy Cottam said. “Just sometimes that’s the way the ball falls and they picked up on some of our stronger players as far as getting the shots off and that was good on their defense. Over 15 shots and just like I said, sometimes it’s not going to go your way and it’s part of the beautiful game of soccer that we love and hate at the same time when it doesn’t go our way.”

Pendleton remained up 1-0 at the break, just missing on a 2-0 edge as what looked to be a goal near the end of the half apparently didn’t cross the goal line according to the sideline officials’s eyes.

A diving save by Kaelynn Henning early in the second half kept the game at 1-0, but on the ensuing corner kick, Harper flicked one in on a pass from Jaelyn Caudill to make it 2-0 less than four minutes into the second half.

Harper then essentially put the game out of reach, converting on a penalty kick after a Lady Royals handball in the box to make it 3-0 with 26:13 to play.

Scrambling to find something, the Lady Royals were finally able to find the back of the net when Neveah Wright did so with 1:16 to play. A bittersweet moment for the senior in what would be her last game.

“It was beautiful. They played with all heart, they did everything we asked them to do and like I said, sometimes it’s gonna go the way you want and sometimes it doesn’t and when it doesn’t, it sucks and it hurts but you learn from it. You move on you come out stronger and better next time,” Cottam said. “We put out three key players that just came back from injury so I think that played a little bit into it with some of the players in different positions.”

But that would be all, the Lady Royals closing their season out at 9-8.

Pendleton heads to Wednesday’s championship to take on Harrison County, who defeated St. Patrick 10-0 in the first game. Harrison County has won seven straight district titles, Pendleton County the last team to knock them off in the district tournament in 2014.

LADY CATS 3, LADY ROYALS 1

PENDLETON COUNTY — 1-2 — 3

MASON COUNTY — 0-1 — 1

Game Stats

Goals: Mason — Wright, Pendleton — Harper 3

Shots (On Goal): Mason 12 (7), Pendleton 7 (6)

Saves: Mason 3 (Henning), Pendleton 6 (Blackaby)

Corner Kicks: Mason 4, Pendleton 1

Fouls: Mason 2, Pendleton 6

Offsides: Mason 1, Pendleton 1

Records: Mason County 9-8, Pendleton County 8-10