Lady Hawks soar over the Admirals, top perch
A pair of unanswered second-half goals has the Hardin Valley Academy girls perched atop the District 4-AAA standings heading into this week.
The Lady Hawks (9-1 overall, 2-0 in the district) made the short trip to Farragut for their annual regular-season showdown with the Lady Admirals and emerged from the fray with a 2-1 victory and the top spot in the league standings.
Things, however, got off to a rocky start for Hardin Valley as the Lady Hawks fell behind, 1-0, when Farragut’s Rowan Unger found the back of the HVA net just four minutes into the match.
Farragut (3-4-1, 0-2) held the lead at halftime and appeared poised to earn a victory but the Lady Hawks had other ideas. They were a different team after the halftime break.
Sophie Roberts scored the equalizer for Hardin Valley just after halftime, tallying in the 47th minute, making the score 1-1.
The match remained knotted until Makayla Hammond scored what turned out to be the game winner in the 72nd minute.
“Our girls just didn’t let up after we scored that first goal,” Hardin Valley coach Dannielle Wilson said. “This is a tough place to get a win, but we know that’s it’s only going to get harder.
“It’s not going to get any easier. We beat Farragut, and now, we have Bearden coming to our place. This is a tough place to get a win. We had to come over here and steal one.”
The Lady Hawks hosted the Lady Bulldogs Tuesday but results weren’t available at press time.
The Lady Hawks still have league matches against William Blount, West High and Maryville, but they’re looking for big things.
“Before the season, we set some team goals,” Wilson said. “One of those goals was to go further than we did last year. Another was to beat (everybody in) our district and the other was to go to state.”
“Our seniors wanted this one really bad. (Farragut coach Jessie Stephens Burkhart used to coach (at Hardin Valley).”
Burkhart obviously was disappointed after her team dropped the match to the Lady Hawks.
“When you don’t play hard and you don’t hustle, this
is what happens,” she said. “You can’t expect to win when you play like this in our district, and it’s just going to get harder.
“I only have about three or four girls showing up to play every night.”
The loss was the third
consecutive one for the Lady Admirals.
