East Hamilton (11-9-2) made its third consecutive state tournament appearance, but fell to Nolensville (13-3-3) 4-0 in the Division I AA Girl’s state quarterfinal on Wednesday night.
“Our game plan was to be more defensive,” said East Hamilton Head Coach Carrie Hill. “We knew that Nolensville had a lot of threats offensively and they are just really technical and had some quality finishes.”
The quality finishes started in the 6th minute for Nolensville as sophomore Millie Smith cut a ball back for fellow sophomore Elisa Dobson who sent her first time shot sailing over the Hurricanes goalkeeper.
Midway through the half Dobson would find the back of the net again as a poor clearance fell right to her. Dobson’s clinical finish from close in made it 2-0 going into the break.
The Hurricanes leaders could be heard from the other side of the field as they tried to inject energy into their teammates in the halftime huddle.
“The energy was there at halftime, even being down 2-0.” Coach Hill said.
The second half didn’t go as planned for East Hamilton as the Hurricanes conceded four minutes into the half. Sophomore Alaina Hornyak made it 3-0 to take the wind out of the Hurricane.
Smith would register another assist as she set up senior Baylee Far to finish from close in in the 56th to make it 4-0.
Coach Hill was proud of what her team accomplished this year and identified ‘balance’ as this team’s identity.
“We had to rely on a lot of different people throughout the year, so we had a good amount of balance,” said Coach Hill. “People stepped up when they needed to and we kind of shared the load. The girls did a good job.
“At the end of the day it is nothing to hang our head about, we are proud of the season. Hopefully we can take a little break and start looking at the off season and getting ready for next year,” Coach Hill said.
Nolensville will advance to play South Gibson in the state semifinals on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
Scoring Summary:
EH 0 0 - 0
N 2 2 - 4
Stats: Shots/on target/Saves
EH 1/0/10
N 23/14/0