The Fleming County Lady Panthers hosted the Mason County Lady Royals in their last regular season soccer game of the year.
The first time the two teams met was early in the season, in late August, with both the Lady Royals and Lady Panthers walking away tied, 1-1. With both teams coming into the final weeks of the season strong, Fleming County sitting at -3-3 on the year and third in the 16th region in RPI, and Mason County sitting at 10-3-2, and fourth in the 10th region, both teams were excited to pick up a win, and neither were willing to go down without a fight.
The Lady Panthers got their offense started quickly in the first half, working their way past the Mason County defense and slipping a goal into the net behind Lady Royal goalkeeper Kaelynn Henning to lead 1-0 four minutes into the contest. As the first half continued, both teams battled back and forth with multiple shots taken toward the goal, but none making it into the net to score.
Still up 1-0 over the Lady Royals, Fleming County continued to battle throughout the remainder of the half, and with seconds left on the clock, were able to slip another goal past Henning to score once again, heading into the second half leading 2-0, and were feeling strong having built up a solid lead over Mason County.
“They set the tone four minutes in. Usually once they get that first goal and set that momentum, they’re pretty much unstoppable. They just wanted it, I’ve never seen these girls hustle the way they did tonight, and play the way they did. They executed passes, they executed plays, corner kicks, everything to 110%.” said Lady Panthers head coach, Kelsey Jent.
Down 2-0 heading into the second half, the Lady Royals regrouped at halftime and were eager to retake the field, hoping to close the point deficit and bring the game back into their favor.
“We just made some adjustments to our line and the way that we were playing, and trying to pinch off some spaces that we were seeing that we could play the ball to our feet and then work the ball in that way.” said Lady Royals head coach, Amy Cottam.
In the second half, the score would remain unchanged thanks largely to competitive defenses on both sides, until just over ten minutes remained on the clock. Fleming County picked up their third goal of the night to lead 3-0 over Mason County late in the second half, and were eager to continue holding off the Lady Royal offense and pick up another win to close out their 2024 regular season.
“My defense is top of the line, and I’m very sad that I will be losing four of the back of my defense, but other than that they know what they need to do. They know if they’re on the 50 yard line and the ball gets past them they know that they need to hustle, and that’s what I love about them. They know how to execute swinging the ball, passing the ball to each other and getting it up the field and making sure that that ball goes nowhere near that goal.” said coach Jent.
As the half continued, the Lady Royals continued their fight against the Lady Panther defense, working their way toward the goal and attempting to slip by Fleming County goalkeeper, Hadlee Hazelrigg.
Late in the second half, the Lady Royals would finally be able to work around the Fleming County defense, scoring their first goal of the night with just over five minutes remaining in the contest. Unfortunately for Mason County, this would be the last goal scored of the game, despite a continuous effort from the Lady Royals to tie the contest before the final buzzer sounded.
“The second half I think we played a lot better, I could tell towards the end we had some girls tiring out, we’ve had some injuries, some illness, so we don’t have everybody here tonight, but I think everybody put in their best effort overall, especially in the second half.” said coach Cottam.
This game marked Fleming County’s last game of the regular season, with the team now gearing up for the first game of the 61st district tournament on Tuesday, October 8, with their opponent yet to be determined. The Lady Panthers however, are feeling strong heading into the tournament and are excited to return to the field next week to continue competing, as they look toward the district championship, and on to the 16th region tournament.
“We’re hyped. We’ve got practice pretty much every day but one. Just ready to just execute, clean up just the little things. They’re just really hyped up about it, 110%, we’re hoping to make it to the finals.” said coach Jent.
Mason County has one more regular season game on the schedule before taking to Pendleton County on Monday, October 7 to compete in the first round of the 38th district tournament, with a contest against the St. Pat Lady Saints on Saturday.
“We haven’t really talked about it, we kinda just take it one day at a time.” said coach Cottam, Looking towards districts we just gotta bring our A-game. We can’t wait and kinda see what the other team is gonna do first, we have to bring the game to them and not let them bring the game to us.”