Opening tourney win vs. Maryville for Lady Ads; HVA survives
Ava Upshaw, a freshman forward, scored the lone goal of the match as she tallied in the third minute, putting the ball into the back of the net at home versus Maryville.
“I was just crossing the ball and it went in. It was going down toward the end line and I was just trying to cross it and it went in,” Upshaw said.
The Lady Admirals, the tournament fourth seed, dominated the game against the fifth-seeded Lady Red Rebels, but senior goalkeeper Mary Bishou made 11 saves for Maryville, which finishes the 2024 campaign with an overall record of 4-13-4.
The game didn’t earn any style points, but that didn’t seem to matter. Farragut head coach Jessie Stephens Burkhart knew her team would have to earn its way out of the district quarterfinals because Lady Red Rebels’ head coach Steve Feather would have his team prepared for the elimination match.
“You know Steve is always going to have his team prepared and ready to play,” Burkhart said. “They’re well-coached and he always has them prepared for what they’re going to see, and he did again today.
“But we did what we had to do. Right now, you have to win and go on and that’s all we’re really worried about right now. We were able to win.”
The Lady Ads (7-4-2) had seven more scoring chances in the second half, but Bishou made the saves and kept her team within striking distance.
“Mary was great in this game,” Feather said. “She is one of two seniors on this team and she’s a leader. It’s easy to lead when things are going well.
“But we’ve had an up-and-down year and we were prepared for this because we were so young,” he added. “Our girls showed a lot of character against a team that was better than us. I don’t usually say this after a loss, especially a season-ending loss, but this was a game that I was proud to be a part of.”
Despite seeing her team outshoot Maryville, Burkhart said her team didn’t generate the best scoring chances.
“We had what I call some half-chances,” Burkhart said.
Despite struggling throughout the match, Maryville narrowly missed an opportunity to tie the match in the 70th minute.
Feather said his team got the chance he was hoping for.
“We knew that at some point that they were going to hold on for a 1-0 result and I figured we might be able to hit them on a counter and we did, and we just missed. Then, we had the corner kick,” Feather said. “So, what I thought would happen at the 20-minute mark happened at the 10-minute mark.”
The Lady Ads played top seed and district unbeaten Bearden on the road in an elimination tournament semifinal Tuesday, Oct 8 (after press deadline).
Photo courtesy of Carlos Reveiz/crfoto.com
