Wednesday’s cross-town showdown between Cumberland County and Stone Memorial’s soccer teams lived up to the hype as the CCHS Lady Jets took down the Lady Panthers 3-2 in a thriller.

“The win is nice,” said CCHS head coach Cub Whitson. “I’m proud that we were able to stick with it and play through some issues.

“I felt like our execution could’ve been a little better to make it a bit smoother there at the end.”

Whitson had praise for the Lady Panthers, who are in their first season under head coach Mark Gregory.

“Stone did a good job getting themselves in positions to make it harder for us,” he said. “We’ve got to be more situationally-aware to close out a game.”

With the teams neck-and-neck through the first 15 minutes of competition, the

Lady Jets broke through first with 24:11 remaining in the first half as Jesla Uribe found the back of the net to put CCHS up 1-0.

Cumberland County often scores in flurries, and such was the case Wednesday as Beth Ann Brewer scored on an assist with 15:45 left until halftime to make the score 2-0 Cumberland County at the break.

“It was great,” Whitson said of the first half. “We had talked about how we could score goals. Both goals that we scored were ways we had talked about and worked on. It made me proud to see them execute on that end.”

Stone Memorial wasn’t going to lay down quietly as the Lady Panthers got on the board early in the second half.

With 34:26 left in the contest, SMHS’ Lilly Boston sent in a highlight-reel shot off a free kick for a Lady Panther goal, cutting the SMHS deficit to 2-1.

Cumberland County responded less than five minutes later as Belle Christopher scored on a free kick of her own, a shot

that found the right corner of the net

from the left side to make it 3-1 Lady Jets.

“Belle is one of the hardest workers that you’ll ever meet,” Whitson said. “She’s constantly moving and working. She feels like it’s her field and she’s going to run the show.”

Down again by two goals, Boston found a way to keep Stone Memorial alive with 21:59 remaining as she scored again via

a free kick, making the score 3-2 Lady

Jets.

Cumberland County’s defense held strong for the final 20 minutes, keeping Stone Memorial out of the net and preserving the 3-2 District 6AA win.

Stone Memorial falls to 0-2 in district play and will look to right the ship on Tuesday against Upperman. 

The Lady Panthers will get another shot at a district opponent Thursday against DeKalb County.

CCHS’ win follows a 9-0 district victory over Upperman on Tuesday. The Lady Jets are 2-1 in district play.

“It was big,” Whitson said. “We were really disappointed at Livingston. We’ve been working towards that. We always want to be at the top, and this was a good step toward that.”

CCHS travels to DeKalb County on Tuesday and travels again Thursday to Upperman.

Tags

Trending Video