Admirals, Hawks end in a draw
Admirals 1
Hawks 1
HARDIN VALLEY — Farragut’s defense allowed Hardin Valley Academy only three shots on goal, while firing nine at HVA sophomore goalkeeper Taylor Mauck.
In the end, however, the Lady Hawks (1-0-2 after the game) scored on 33 percent of its shots while the Lady Admirals (2-0-1 after the game) scored on just nine percent.
This growing District 4-AAA rivalry ended in a 1-1 tie at HVA Wednesday evening, Aug. 24.
With a majority of first-half play on Hardin Valley Academy’s defensive side, “I felt we did outplay them” in the first 40 minutes, FHS head coach Dennis Lindsay said.
“I thought we did really well in the first half,” Amy Cloud, Lady Ads sophomore midfielder, said. “They sure gave us a run for our money in the second half.”
“Farragut really came out to play in the first half. They played formation, which is a little unorthodox in the modern game,” Lady Hawks head coach Nick Bradford said. “We struggled to adapt to it. We didn’t play very high in the field. We struggled to string together consecutive passes.”
“I think we started out a little slow, but we picked it up really good and our intensity was a lot better as the game continued,” Gwen Breslin, junior forward who scored Hardin Valley’s lone goal, said.
Farragut broke a scoreless affair when, on a free kick, junior midfielder Eryn Hill scored from about 25 yards out in the 43st minute.
“I thought we slacked off a little when we scored that goal. The momentum changed,” Lindsay said.
Megan MacLean, Lady Admirals junior forward, said, “We’ve just got to keep working on our fitness and keep pushing hard to the end.”
Another serious FHS scoring chance was thwarted when an HVA defender used her body to stop a shot in front of Hardin Valley’s goal, covering for Mauck who dove to stop a shot.
Seconds later, senior Bailey Sipos charged up the middle well into Farragut territory and passed right to Breslin, whose scoring shot from about 20 yards out came in the 51st minute.
“I made wide space enough for her just to slot it to my foot,” Breslin said. “It was an awesome shot, to be honest. Like I felt it. Like I knew I was going to score.
“… When they scored it brought my motivation up even more,” Breslin added. “I wanted to be the one who, like, tied it up.”
Bradford called Breslin’s goal “a really great individual moment and a fantastic shot.”
Defensively, “I’ve got to give some credit to Lainee Griffin for cleaning up some through balls,” Bradford said about his junior defender. “… I feel like our back line did a great job.
“… Our young keeper, Taylor Mauck, stepped up in a big way in the second half for sure.”
Farragut had two golden chances in the final five minutes. One found a Lady Admiral firing too high on a wide-open attempt from just 10 yards out.
The second found Griffin all alone in back, stopping a charge from MacLean with about two minutes left.
“I tried to get as far as I could in front of the ball and put anything on the ball that I could to stop the shot,” Griffin said.
