What do you need to build your self-confidence?
For this girl’s soccer team, building self-confidence is one win at a time.
Scott County girls’ soccer can score goals. Ten against Bryan Station, seven against Western Hills and six Wednesday night in the regular-season finale against Harrison County are evidence of that.
Now, in order to extend their season, the Lady Cards have to devise a way to do the same thing against a recent nemesis and one of the top teams in the state.
While a convincing 6-1 victory over the Fillies at Toyota Stadium was good for morale’s sake, SC (6-11-1) also recognizes that it was coming off a stretch of seven shutout losses in eight games. Three of those were 1-0 decisions.
“If you’re looking at games that are 0-0 at halftime, eventually things are going to crack if we’re not able to release any of that pressure in terms of a goal,” SC coach Scott McKelway said.
That one goal often has been a back-breaker, and it came early against Harrison County (7-6-1). Laurel McDaniel took advantage of some extra space from 20 yards away to cash in only 3:25 after the opening kickoff.
It took a while, but SC pulled even on Reagan Oliver’s free kick with 13:41 remaining in the half, then went ahead to stay Lindsey Combs set up Madison Russell’s perfectly place boot over the head of Harrison goalkeeper Elizabeth Allison with 3:03 until intermission.
Jordan Hill joined the party before the horn. Combs cashed in a breakaway early in the second half, and Olivia Burgess tacked on two more to clinch a significant achievement.
SC outscored its regular-season opponents by a 37-36 margin. Those columns were a minus-20 for the Lady Cards prior to the playoff a year ago. Oh, and one more thing.
“This was our first comeback of the season,” Oliver said. “I know it’s our last game, but still, that’s big.”
Scott County’s previous two wins were over 42nd District rivals Sayre and Bryan Station.
That clinched a No. 3 seed in the five-team playoff for the Lady Cards. They’ll face defending champion and No. 2 Henry Clay at 8:15 p.m. Wednesday on Bryan Station’s pitch.
“I know we’ve had a lot of losses and hard games, but I think it’s helped us prepare for Henry Clay,” Combs said,
A key performer in Scott County’s midfield, Combs – one of four seniors along with Russell, Alexa Loar and Ashlei Green – rarely sees scoring opportunities unfettered as the one that greeted her after an interception in the Fillies’ defensive end.
“I was really excited. I was kind of panicking,” Combs said. “We have a strong defense. We’ve just been lacking the connection with our offense in the final third. Today we just really came up with those passes and executed better.”
Source: News-Graphic
