Soccer team off the mark in loss at Manchester

Sometimes the final score doesn’t always reflect a team’s quality of play.

Thursday afternoon in Manchester that’s what happened to the Lady Pioneer soccer team when they took on Coffee County in non-district action.

Warren County out-shot and out-played its counterparts for most of the 80-minute contest, but the final score was in favor of the Lady Red Raiders as Coffee County defeated the Lady Pioneers 2-0.

In the first half shots on goal were almost even as Coffee County had five attempts and Warren had four, with the Lady Pioneers taking six corner kicks and Coffee County taking just three.

Coffee County had the first two shot attempts in the game, with the first coming just three minutes in off the foot of Katie Overman, but the shot sailed over the cross bar. Two minutes later the Lady Red Raiders’ second attempt found the back of the net off the foot of Chassie Anderson for a 1-0 lead.

Warren County picked up the tempo of the game on offense, which resulted in the Lady Pioneers’ first shot at goal off the foot of Taylor Hennessee, but it was turned away by the Coffee County keeper.

Kayla Freeman then broke down the middle of the field and pulled the keeper from the net, but her shot came up short.

Warren County gave the Lady Red Raiders few attempts in the remaining minutes of the first half. The Lady Pioneers still controlled the game, but each opportunity to score came up short as the half ended with Coffee County holding a 1-0 lead.

Freeman had a chance to tie the game for the Lady Pioneers in the opening minutes of the second half, but her shot was scooped up by Coffee County’s keeper Catlin Hurst.

Coffee County took a 2-0 lead at the 36:24 mark when Shelby Mason scored.

Warren County continued to turned up the pace of play as the game became more physical. Dakota Tinney had two attempts turned away midway through the half. Kristin Watts and Freeman came up with two more attempts for Warren County, but once again the Lady Pioneers couldn’t catch a break.

Coffee County had one more attempt with 5:32 left in the game, but Taylor Douglas came up with the save to keep her team within striking distance.

Stacey Rampp and Freeman sent two more shots towards the Coffee County goal, but the Lady Pioneers failed to put the ball in the goal as the final whistle sounded to end the game.

In the second half Warren County had eight shots at goal, while holding Coffee County to four.

‘I’m really proud of the way we played tonight,’ said coach Keith Hamilton. ‘The girls played as a team and we played really well on both sides of the ball.

‘Sometimes you need a little luck and it just wasn’t on our side tonight. We did a good job of running our lanes and passing the ball downfield, and even though we didn’t win I thought it was one of the best efforts we have had going back to last season.’

The Lady Pioneers will hit the road on Tuesday for a District 7-AAA matchup against Oakland and will take on Riverdale on Thursday in their first home game of the season.