May 24, 2018
The Lawrence County Middle School Lady Dawgs finished their 2018 season as East Kentucky Conference District Runner Ups, with an overall season record of 12-2-1. Both losses were in tough fought games against Martin County Middle School, where the games went into double overtime, and the first into a penalty kick shootout.
The season opened with back to back wins against Ashland Middle (1-0) and East Carter (3-0). When the team traveled to Martin County in the pouring rain, they were up 1-0 with 8 minutes left in the game, when Martin County scored and tied the game. After two overtimes and a penalty kick shootout, LC fell short 1-2.
Ready to regain momentum, these 16 talented young ladies, put another three straight wins in the record book (@ Boyd Co. 4-0, Johnson Central 4-0, @ East Carter 3-0). When they met Ashland Middle at AK Park they got their one tie of the season (0-0).
Working hard to prepare for District play, the team pulled out five straight wins to end their regular season (Martin Co. 2-0, @ Johnson Central 3-0, @ Russell 4-2, Paintsville 3-2, Boyd Co. 10-0).
District play began with a win against Boyd County (9-0), followed by a semi-final win against East Carter (4-1) placing the team in the championship game facing Martin County once again for the season.
At the end of regular time, the game was tied 1-1 where it remained at the end of the first overtime period, during the second overtime Martin County scored a “golden goal” to win, making LC the EKC District Runner Ups.
A season recap shows the team scoring 52 goals, while allowing only 8 to be scored on them, and had 10 shutouts (opponents scoreless).
New 6th grade goalkeeper, Kaison Ward had a total of 8 1/2 games reported as shutouts, while backup keeper/8th grade captain Camran Diamond stepped up to fill in and recorded 1 1/2 shutouts herself.
Ten different players scored throughout the season, exercising the philosophy “we before me.” Scoring was reported as follows:
Emersyn Elliott 12 goals (4 assists), Alyssa Moore 7 goals (3 assists), Alyssa “Little A” Howard 7 goals (2 assists), Brylee Blair 6 goals (10 assists), Ashlynn Elliott 6 goals (10 assists), Jasmine Justice 5 goals (5 assists), Casey Hovis 4 goals (1 assist), Paylin Meek 2 goals (3 assists), Cameron Hovis 1 goal (1 assist) and Saibra Moore 1 goal. Chloe Vinson had several shots that just didn’t fall and Callie Robertson was out all season with an injury.
Hats off to the stellar defense, that helped the goalkeeper hold opponents to only 8 goals the entire season: Maggie Johnson, LayLen Bentley, Cameron Hovis, Saibra Moore and Camran Diamond.
By Kathy Webb
