Soccer nabs first 7-AAA win
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After tying Cookeville last week 1-1, Warren County took advantage of playing on its home field and dominated the Lady Warriors 4-0 to pick up its first District 7-AAA win of the season and improve to 1-1-3 in district play.
Warren County didn’t waste anytime in getting the goose egg off its side of the scoreboard. Alex Mullican took a corner kick from Vanessa Cornelius just three minutes into the game, and sent a shot to the back of the net for a 1-0 Warren County lead.
The Lady Pioneers mid-fielders kept Warren County on offense for most of the first half. Several long passes by Warren County drove the ball towards the goal, but the passes were just a little long for the Lady Pioneers to run them down for a shot at goal.
White County’s only real shot came at the 28-minute mark when Lady Warrior Chrissy Felton slipped behind the defense and fired at goal, but Lady Pioneer goalie Erin Wolford made a diving save to her right to keep White County scoreless.
The rest of the first half was all Warren County. Kirby Broom missed a shot at the 17-minute mark. Alex Smartt had a chance to score at the 14-minute mark and Shea Martin missed with 10 minutes left in the half.
White County pushed the ball past the mid-field point only once in the last four minutes of play due to the aggressiveness of Warren County’s offense. With just under two minutes left to play in the first half Hillary Templeton scored to give the Lady Pioneers a 2-0 edge going into halftime.
“We had a sloppy first half,” said coach Keith Hamilton. “The girls worked hard but we missed several opportunities to add to the score before the half. Our defense did a good job clearing the ball and for the most part kept White County from making any offensive charge.”
The first five minutes of the second half belonged to Warren County’s Alex Smartt. Smartt gave her team a 3-0 lead with three minutes off the clock. At the 36-minute mark, Smartt struck again, this time firing from the left side of the net past White County’s goalie — former Morrison basketball standout Molly McFadden — as the Lady Pioneers went up 4-0.
White County’s second chance of the game to score came at the 34-minute mark when the Lady Pioneers were called for a shove to the back outside the box. Felton tried the indirect kick, but Wolford made the save to keep the shutout intact.
The Lady Pioneers kept the offensive attack on full charge as shot after shot just missed. Warren County had four corner kicks in the last five minutes of play but failed to capitalize on each chance at time ran off the clock.
Warren County had 21 shots at goal with two of their four goals coming off corner kicks. The Lady Pioneers had 15 corner kicks on the night and Wolford collected two saves.
“It was great to get this district win,” Hamilton said. “I was a little worried about White County; they have played everybody tough and was even ahead of Riverdale for most of that game.
“The girls are more aggressive and their intensity level is a lot better than it was three weeks ago. We started to turn things around after the Chattanooga tournament, and built momentum off the Cookeville game. We got a little lazy at times tonight and we can’t do that against teams like Riverdale and Blackman. Hopefully we are turning things around and will be ready for Riverdale Thursday night. Our goal is to finish the season strong and carry this momentum into the district tournament.”