CLEVELAND, Tenn. — With a two-goal advantage at halftime Tuesday, Cleveland High School girls’ soccer coach Andy Byrd encouraged his team to win the first 10 minutes of the second half of its District 5-AAA semifinal against McMinn County.
The Lady Raiders might not have done that, but their play in the other 70 minutes more than made up for it.
Kaitlyn Poulakis’ and Bayleigh Ellis’ first-half goals stood, as Cleveland advanced to the final with a 2-0 victory over McMinn County. This is the second straight year that the Lady Raiders have ended McMinn’s season and the fifth consecutive year they’ve claimed a postseason victory over the Lady Cherokees.
Cleveland will travel to third-ranked Soddy-Daisy (17-0-2), a 3-0 winner over Ooltewah, for Thursday’s final. Both teams qualify for the Region 3-AAA tournament. Soddy-Daisy won the first matchup 1-0.
Cleveland is 7-1-1 in its last nine games, with the lone loss coming to 11th-ranked Siegel.
“In our halftime talk, I told the girls that McMinn was capable of scoring four goals in a half, and that it was paramount to win the first 10 minutes,” Byrd said. “We didn’t do that — we didn’t have that pizazz — but we defended very well.”
With the halftime lead, Cleveland (12-6-2) continued to attack, firing off eight shots in the final 40 minutes compared to two for McMinn. The dangerous opportunities continued to arise, as freshmen Ellis, McKenzie Harris and Hope Haas had opportunities on goal in the final 40 minutes.
“In the second half, they continued to pound us,” McMinn coach David McDonald said. “We didn’t play like we can; we lost a lot of the basics.”
The Cleveland defense also put the clamps down on sophomore forward Haley Ward, who is tied for the area lead in goals, and senior midfielder Taylor Van Wagner, who is bound for Austin Peay. The pair hooked up for one dangerous opportunity, but a shot by Van Wagner sailed above the goal.
“I think we needed to play faster than we were playing,” McDonald said. “It took a while for us to get acclimated to the field, and we weren’t consistently able to string passes together, possess the ball and shoot when the time was right.”
Said Byrd: “As a coach, you ask for stars and you get the moon. We didn’t finish, but I will take a win anyway I can get it.”
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