by Rusty Ellis
The Livingston Academy Lady Wildcats got a hat trick from Mallori Lindsay to win the District 7-2A Championship over DeKalb County 7-0 on Thursday night.
The scoring started just seven minutes in, as Lauren Storie put one past the keeper to give Livingston a 1-0 lead. Taryn Childers added a goal just a minute later to double the lead, and Lindsay found the back of the net for her first goal in the 19th minute to push the lead to 3-0.
Ella Copeland’s goal in the 26th minute for a 4-0 lead, and Lindsay scored her second goal in the 35th to push the advantage to 5-0. Saige Howard closed the half on an exciting note for the Lady Wildcats, as her goal in the 36th minute gave LA a 6-0 lead heading into the half.
Lindsay finished off her hat trick with her goal in the 46th minute, capping the scoring for the match.
With 13 minutes remaining in regulation, DeKalb County’s coaching staff voiced their displeasure with the officiating, pulled their team off the field and elected to forfeit the remainder of the match, giving the Lady Wildcats the District 7-2A Championship in 7-0 fashion.
Though certainly a bizarre end to the evening, LA head coach Heather Marshall was pleased with how her team stepped their play up from Tuesday’s semifinal.
“We didn’t play our best on Tuesday night, so I’m glad they came out and put on a show tonight,” Marshall said. “It’s always exciting to win a district title, and now we’re going to celebrate tonight and then turn around and regroup for the region tournament.”
With so many teams likely putting an emphasis on slowing down Taryn Childers, Lindsay’s emergence this season as another scoring option has given Marshall a plethora of weapons that she can go to when the team needs a goal.
“She had a lot of nice finishes tonight,” Marshall said. “Being able to put her and Taryn up top together is huge, they just have such great chemistry out there that they’ve built over the season…I think they were both happy being able to play together after not doing that for the last three weeks, so I’m super happy for both of them.”
With the region tournament now shifting to Livingston on Tuesday night, Marshall says that the one area she would like to see continued improvement out of is the team’s comfort with a new defensive scheme, one that exists due to injuries.
“We have a new defensive structure since we lost one of our backs on Tuesday night,” Marshall said. “We’ve got to build that chemistry quickly so we’re ready for a tougher team on Tuesday whether we get Tullahoma or Franklin County. If we continue that, we should hopefully be fine on Tuesday.”
