Lady Cyclones fall to Central in district tourney, 3-1

Published 11:26 pm Wednesday, October 16, 2019

By Allen LaMountain

BY ALLEN LAMOUNTAIN
STAR CORRESPONDENT
The Elizabethton Lady Cyclones won 11 of 15 regular-season games including a victory over Dobyns-Bennett, but it was one and done in the TSSAA District 1-AA playoffs.
Junior Rylie Patrick scored a three-goal hat trick as Sullivan Central (7-7, 3-2 district) upset EHS 3-1 on Tuesday evening at Citizens Bank Stadium to send the Lady Cyclones home for the season.
“We have had a tough season, but I told my girls there was nothing stopping them from winning this game but themselves,” Lady Cougars head coach Emily Robinette said. “We have a young team – we have no seniors – but we needed some leadership and we got it tonight.
“I am so proud of Rylie Patrick, we knew she could do that and she got the confidence in herself to do it. She also got some great through balls from Chipi Hamelryck and Emma Niebruegge.”
EHS (11-5, 4-1) scored in the ninth minute on a shot from senior Maggie Johnson off a nice feed to the middle from senior Lexi Brown for a 1-nil Cyclones advantage.
That lead held until the 36th minute of the first half when Patrick scored on a breakaway to beat senior goalkeeper Bailey Creasy and level the score at 1-1.
Creasy, who hadn’t played in goal since last year had to replace freshman phenom Morgan Heaton who was injured and unavailable for this game, as was Maddie O’Quinn who was also out with an injury.
“Bailey didn’t find out she was playing in goal until just before the game,” Lady Cyclones head coach Bill McClay said. “Anytime you give up a goal in the last five minutes of a half is problematic.
“They looked like they were winning and we looked like we had lost and it was 1-1. Then they got one relatively early in the second half too and that didn’t help us.”
Patrick scored in the 48th minute off a failure of the Cyclone backline to fully clear the ball from the penalty area and Patrick settled a hard clearing kick in the middle of the field, slid a one-time pass forward to herself, and fired a shot past Creasy for a 2-1 Cougars lead.
EHS had some chances but seemed to take the shot a little too soon which aided Central’s goalkeeper Jaclyn West who did not have to move off her line to make a play on Cyclone shot attempts.
Senior Kaylen Shell had a breakaway look in the middle of the field but was indecisive on when to shoot and she fired her shot midway into the penalty area where West had an easy play on the low shot.
Then minutes later, Brown fired a hard left-footed blast from West’s right, but her shot also was fired right at West who made the stop easily, with no rebound.
In the second half, EHS outshot Central 6-3 but none got past West while Patrick cemented her hat trick by pushing the rebound of a shot off the left post by Niebruegge into the back of the net.
Central will advance to likely play Greeneville in the district final on Thursday.
—
District 1-AA girls soccer playoff
Sullivan Central 3-1
Sullivan Central 1  2 – 3
Elizabethton      1  0 – 1
Scoring summary
First Half
E – Johnson (assist Brown) 9:00
S – Patrick (assist Hamelryck) 36:00
Second Half
S – Patrick (unassisted) 48:00
S – Patrick (assist Niebruegge) 78:00

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