Lady Cyclones getting in final season tune-up on pitch
Published 11:42 pm Thursday, August 4, 2022
1 of 7
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Lady Cyclone Chloe Kellerman pushes the ball toward the West Ridge goal as a Lady Wolves defender closes in.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Elizabethton senior Morgan Heaton watches as she sends a shot toward the Lady Wolves goal.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
The West Ridge goalie dives but can't stop the ball from reaching the back of the net on a Lady Cyclone score.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Elizabethton's Kaylee Cranford puts a foot into the soccer ball as she makes a long down-field pass to an open teammate.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Lady Cyclone Chloe Kellerman takes a perfectly placed corner kick from Molly Johnson and sends the ball into the net from 10-yards out for the Lady Cyclones to extend their lead to 3-1.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Elizabethton's Kaiya Simmons puts a charge into a kick as she sends the ball toward the West Ridge net.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Molly Johnson outruns two West Ridge defenders to the ball during Thursday's scrimmage at Citizens Bank Stadium.
STAR CORRESPONDENT
The Elizabethton Lady Cyclone soccer team continued to show strong improvement as they prepared for a new season on the pitch when they played host to the West Ridge Lady Wolves on Thursday evening at Citizens Bank Stadium.
With a thunderstorm passing through about an hour prior to the 7 p.m. start, a beautiful, cool evening made for a perfect setting for soccer as the Lady Cyclones worked through three 20-minute quarters to take a 4-2 win as the final whistle sounded.
Kaiya Simmons got the Lady Cyclones off on the right foot when she put the ball into the net in the opening period to make it 1-nil.
The Lady Wolves responded just before the end of the period to knot the score as the teams headed to the sideline even at 1-1.
Simmons quickly responded just 30 seconds into the second period with her second goal of the evening to stake the team to a 2-1 lead.
Lady Cyclone Molly Johnson made the score 3-1 as the speedy Johnson outraced the Lady Wolves’ defense and put a perfect shot into the goal.
Johnson had a hand on the fourth Lady Cyclone goal at the 5:30 mark of the period as she placed a perfect corner kick center of the field and Chloe Kellerman put a perfect boot on the ball from 10 yards out for the score.
The Lady Cyclones had at least three other opportunities slide by the wayside to increase the lead as they kept the offensive attack on the Lady Wolves in the second and third periods.
The Lady Wolves added their final score with 12:30 showing on the scoreboard in the third period of play.
Lauren Meier, who is in her first season as head coach of the Lady Cyclones taking over for the retired Bill McClay, was very pleased with what she saw from her squad on the evening.
“I think that a lot of the stuff that we have been working on over the summer they implemented and we saw some possessions and good passing and the girls getting their heads up and making good runs on the ball,” Meier said after the scrimmage.
“The corner kicks were really, really good tonight. We scored off a corner kick and every corner kick we had, we were the first to the ball. That is something that we struggled with last year and it was really, really good to see them come out showing improvement. I am happy with how they played.”
The Lady Cyclones travel to Chuckey-Doak on Tuesday and host Boone Thursday in the final pre-season scrimmages. Morristown West pays a visit to Citizens Bank Stadium at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 16 for the official start to the season.
