Lady Cyclones overwhelm Unicoi County
Published 12:04 pm Wednesday, August 15, 2018
Juniors Maggie Johnson and Cami Davison each scored a three-goal hat trick on Tuesday at Citizens Bank Stadium as the Elizabethton Lady Cyclones dominated Unicoi County 9-1 in girls soccer action.
Another pair of juniors also got in on the scoring for EHS as Kalen Shell had two goals and Lexi Brown’s goal put the finishing touches on a dominating win for the Cyclones. This match was not considered a conference game though these two squads are conference rivals.
The one that counts in the conference standings will occur on September 25 at Unicoi County.
“They were depleted a bit,” Lady Cyclones head coach Bill McClay said. “They were down a couple starters. We switched a lot of people around and everybody got in. We were a little bit slow getting started. We were shooting pretty well but a little bit wide. We didn’t start the way we did against Tennessee High in scrimmage, in which we played well for 30 minutes, but we have to learn to be a little bit more intense all the time.”
EHS (1-0-0) scored in the 22nd minute on a shot by Shell that was assisted by Johnson and three minutes later Davison scored her first goal of the season with help from Shell for a 2-nil lead. Johnson scored in the 31st minute on an unassisted goal and Shell capped off the first half scoring off a corner kick from senior Abbey Townsend for a 4-nil advantage.
The second half opened with Johnson’s second goal, assisted by sophomore McKendra Norris and just a minute and a half later it was Davison adding her second tally of the season. Davison made a run up the middle with sophomore Tessa Lamb driving the ball down the far sideline.
As she crossed the penalty area, Lamb fed a pass to her striking foot and Davison’s shot beat Unicoi County goalkeeper Carly Kinsler for a 6-nil EHS lead.
“It was a good first game,” McClay said. “We got a lot of girls out there and overall it was pretty good. We had other people that had opportunities, Maddie had a chance, Lacey had a chance and we learned some lessons tonight.”
The Lady Blue Devils got a solid scoring chance when junior goalkeeper Bailey Creasy fielded a back pass which gave UC a free kick just at the penalty area line. Creasy stopped the high blast, knocking it past the back line for a UC corner kick which came to nothing when the EHS defense cleared.
UC (0-1-0) got its only score on a free kick from senior Spencer Garant as she floated a shot over the head of Creasy into the far corner from 15 yards away. The Cyclones added goals from Johnson, Davison and Brown in the waning minutes.
EHS 9-1
UC 0 1 – 1
EHS 4 5 – 9
Scoring summary
First Half
E – Shell (assist, Johnson) 22:00
E – Davison (assist, Shell) 24:00
E – Johnson (unassisted) 31:00
E – Shell (assist Townsend) 39:00
Second Half
E – Johnson (assist, Norris) 44:00
E – Davison (assist, Lamb) 45:00
UC – Garant (free kick) 68:00
E – Johnson (unassisted) 71:00
E – Davison (unassisted) 77:00
E – Brown (unassisted) 79:00