The girls’ soccer players in Soddy-Daisy’s senior class are going out the way they came in.
The Lady Trojans earned a 2-0 victory over Siegel in a Class AAA high school state sectional Saturday at Soddy-Daisy.
As a result, Soddy-Daisy (21-0-2) advances to the state tournament, which begins Wednesday in Chattanooga, for the first time since the current seniors were freshmen. The Lady Stars ended a string of six consecutive state-tournament berths.
Oakland beat Cleveland 3-0 in Murfreesboro.
“There are eight teams left and they’re all quality teams,” Soddy-Daisy coach Moises Drumond said. “It doesn’t get any easier from here.”
The Lady Trojans’ first goal came about 17 minutes into the match. Natalie Smith lofted a corner kick directly in front of the net, where Summer Lanter timed her leap and headed it in. Drumond praised the execution, calling the score a “confidence boost.”
The second goal came nearly 15 minutes into the second half on a penalty kick by Katie Hillis, who was knocked down chasing the ball inside the box.
Both teams’ goalkeepers were busy all night. When they weren’t making saves or smothering the ball in front of the net, they were thanking the posts for being kind.
“Both teams are so good they’re going to create chances on any team,” Drumond said. “They had plenty of chances on our goal. We had plenty of chances on theirs.”
When the match was still scoreless, a shot by one of the Lady Stars was bobbled by keeper Haley Myers and hit off the left upright. The ball ended up centered near an open goal, but Soddy-Daisy’s Elizabeth Clark managed to kick it toward the sideline.
Drumond noted that Myers handled everything else smoothly.
“That was the one ball Haley wasn’t able to hold onto,” Drumond said. “Elizabeth cleared it and she was able to hold on to about everything else. The defense just has to help the goalie when she needs it.”
The Lady Trojans had beaten the Lady Stars 1-0 earlier in the season. Siegel is saying goodbye to seven seniors, including one unable to play because of an injury suffered last week and a keeper who was injured warming up Saturday.
“We had to definitely put some more in to play forward trying to come from behind,” Siegel coach Eric Shelton said. “It hasn’t been in the cards for us the last couple of games. We’ve been hitting the goal posts, and our opponent last Thursday scored off a corner kick on us, too.
“They have a good team,” he said of the Lady Trojans. “They play with a lot of heart and have a ferocious attack.”
In Murfreesboro, Ashley Bush scored from a Baylee Linnell assist in the first half for Oakland (13-6-1), which controlled play, and Linnell and Taylor McKinnely scored in the 71st and 74th minutes. Cleveland (13-9-2) played the last 16 minutes a player down after being given a red card.
“Our backs were already in a corner,” said Cleveland coach Andy Byrd, as quoted by the Murfreesboro newspaper. “It takes a tremendous amount of effort to come out of being a man down and to have to score a goal.
“We did not play our style of soccer. … We certainly didn’t look to possess like we could.”