Lady Bulldogs extend winning streak
Bearden High School continued its dominance in one of Knox County’s most hotly contested girls soccer rivalries last week.
The Lady Bulldogs extended its winning streak over Farragut with a 4-1 victory Thursday night, Sept. 25 at the Farragut Soccer Stadium.
Bearden hasn’t lost to Farragut since Sept. 21, 2017. The Lady Bulldogs( (11-1-1 overall, 4-0-1 in District 4-AAA) has now won four consecutive matches since plating Knoxville West to a 0-0 draw on Sept. 12.
The tie represents the first blemish on Bearden’s district record in nearly a decade.
Last week’s match between the Lady Bulldogs and the Lady Admirals (5-5-1, 1-3-0) was a stalemate as it was locked in a 0-0 draw after the first 40 minutes.
But that all changed soon after the team’s took the field after halftime.
Bearden, which controlled the tempo and enjoyed a heavy possession advantage in the first half, had 11 early scoring chances and five of those shots landed on goal. The Lady Admirals mustered only two shots in the opening half. Both, however, landed on target.
The Lady Bulldogs put their first two shots of the second half into the back of the net as Tyler Roth tallied the first marker of the match when she scored just two minutes after halftime to give Bearden a 1-0 lead.
Roth scored her second goal of the match in the 45th minute, elating Bearden coach Ryan Radcliffe.
“I was very pleased with the way that we did in the second half,” Radcliffe said. “I thought the first half was chaotic, which you can expect in a game like that, but I thought in the second half we came out and had a better reaction to things and trusted ourselves as a team.”
Bearden would score two more goals on its way to notching yet another win over the Lady Admirals.
Jayla Blue, a University of Tennessee commitment who picked up an assist on the game’s first goal, scored off a set piece as she tallied off a corner kick from Cali Motley, after emerging from a crowded goal box.
Motley scored, making it 4-0, in the 75th minute. Roth was credited with an assist on Bearden’s final goal of the game.
The Lady Admirals avoided the shutout when freshman Lucy Luckadoo scored off a corner kick from Ava Upshaw in the 77th minute.
Despite the loss Farragut coach Jessie Stephens Burkhart was pleased with her side’s effort in the first half.
“I thought we came out and executed the game plan we had in the first half,” Burkhart said, “We were telling the girls that we weren’t just mentally all in it the whole game.
“And when you have mental lapses like that, it’s really hard to beat teams as disciplined and as strong as Bearden is.”
For the Lady Bulldogs, it was a big win.
“It’s a big win, obviously a win in a rivalry game,” Radcliffe said. “It’s always a fun game to be a part of.
“They have a lot of talent and skill out there and they have some girls that can really play.”
