The 15^th time was the charm. In 14 previous meetings with Dobyns-Bennett dating back to 1997 the Elizabethton Lady Cyclones soccer team had fallen. Some in lopsided fashion, especially in the program’s early years, but of late EHS has held its own.

On Thursday night at Citizen’s Bank Stadium, senior forward Caitlyn Gardner broke the hex with a goal in the 78^th minute and the Lady Cyclones held on for a 1-nil victory.

“I saw it coming in and I think I hit it with my left foot, I don’t even remember” a jubilant Gardner said. “If this is the first one to go in, I thought just hope for the best. Coach had told us not to panic if we got close to the goal, so I tried not to panic and just score for us.”

With the temperature on the field reaching nearly 100 degrees both sides battled to a 0-0 halftime score with each team owning one shot on goal. The Cyclones chance came on a penalty kick from senior Haley Burleson and her shot was fielded by Lady Indians goalkeeper Cydney Kinkead.

“She hit right into the keeper,” Lady Cyclones head coach Bill McClay said. “That doesn’t bother me, it was some of the mental things we didn’t do. There were times when we should have played it back to Loran and there would be no situation. Physically we stayed with them.”

Dobyns-Bennett’s chance came when Callie Stidham crossed EHS goalkeeper Loran Campbell’s face in the penalty area and fired a low shot that Campbell handled cleanly. Just minutes later the Indians were awarded a free kick from 15 yards out and Haylee Tilson fired a shot that Campbell turned away.

The second half saw both sides depleted physically but still keeping after it. Stidham was able to get off a weak shot early in the second half that was no problem for the EHS keeper. Minutes later Burleson fired a shot from near the end line to the right of D-B backup goalkeeper Katie Love that struck the near post. Kinkead had suffered an injury to her right foot late in the first half and did not return prompting Love’s insertion.

The next good chance also belonged to EHS as a drive by senior defender Linda Espino off a free kick from 20 yards away was headed by a D-B defender over the crossbar to save what may have been the first goal of the match.

That distinction went to Gardner on a play that began with Burleson holding the ball in the far corner and playing it to the middle where it came to rest on the foot of Gardner and the senior’s strike was true.

“Haley made the hustle play on that one,” Gardner said. “We kept hustling because we had never beaten them before and it was something we wanted to do. Coach has told us all season that we are preparing for D-B. Hopefully we can play as well against South and UH to be strong in the conference.”

Despite the losses over the years coach McClay gave his appreciation to the Dobyns-Bennett squad for scheduling them nearly every year.

“14 games going back to 1997 and the scores read 0-10, 0-9, etcetera,” McClay said. “ But two out of the last four years we played them here we lost but it was 2-3, and 1-2. I appreciate that they play us, I really do because it prepares us for Greeneville. This is the kind of stuff we need to challenge ourselves. I just think we played well.”

EHS 1-0

Dobyns-Bennett 0 0 – 0

Elizabethton 0 1 – 1

Scoring Summary

Second Half

E – Gardner (unassisted) 78:00