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Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009

LexCath girls romp in 14th Region soccer final

LexCath avenges two straight losses in final

RICHMOND — Neither coach saw this coming.

Not Terry Quigley in his wildest dreams, nor Kevin Wright in his most treacherous nightmare.

Neither could have imagined a 4-0 domination in the girls' 14th Region championship game, not between No. 5 Lexington Catholic and No. 6 West Jessamine.

But that's what they got, with Quigley's Catholic team avenging two straight region championship losses to the Colts in a forceful way.

"A coach can't dream of a game going better than this," Quigley said. But he didn't have that positive vibe all day.

As Quigley waited to be picked up to go to Bellevue Field Wednesday afternoon, he couldn't shake the negative visions.

"My stomach had that queasy feeling all day," he said. "The nightmare is that they're going to score in the first three minutes."

Instead it was Wright's nightmare to live.

Chelsea Smith scored the first of her three goals in the first seven minutes on a soft tap past keeper Allison Brown.

"We all had something to prove," Smith said. "This is just awesome, awesome."

Thirteen minutes later, Catholic's forward added another goal. She also scored a goal in the second half.

"There's no room for error in these games," Wright explained. "We came out slow, made some mistakes, and they made us pay.

"You give up an early goal, and they'll eat you alive."

West Jessamine gave up three in the first 21 minutes.

"That was the dream part of it," Quigley said. "It was the converse of the nightmare."

The Lexington Catholic defense, which has given up a region-low 15 goals all season, wasn't about to let the Colts come back on them.

The four defenders in the back — M.C. Combs, Awbrey Wahle, Erin Prater and Alex Waller — along with keeper Ciara Thomas limited a strong West offense to just two shots on goal.

"Those four in the back have gotten better every game, and tonight was just the culmination of everything they've been working on," Quigley said.

Wahle, a senior and longtime starter, couldn't agree more. The defense earned its 11th shutout of the season as Catholic got its 10th victory in a row.

"This is one of the best games we've played this year," she said. "We wanted to prove to ourselves that we could win the region."

It was a big win for a group that had suffered agonizing defeats in this same game the past two seasons.

"We showed our heart," Thomas said. "For the nine seniors we have, this was something that was really important to us."

With their victory, the Knights earned the right to host next week's sub-sectional game against the winner of Woodford County and Henry Clay on Thursday night.

Despite the loss, Wright praised his team and the season it has had.

"I'm proud of every kid we have," he said. "We only have one senior. We're a very young team. ... We'll be a force to be reckoned with in the future."

But he acknowledged his team went up against a force to be reckoned with Wednesday night.

"They were on," Wright said of Catholic. "By the time we got things gathered up and got it going, it was over."

At Madison Central

Lexington Catholic 4, West Jessamine 0

Goals—Chelsea Smith 3, Amy Ghibaudy.

Goalkeepers—WJ: Allison Brown, Rebekah Hulsing; LC: Ciara Thomas, Kate Fitzgerald.

Records—West Jessamine 14-5-3, Lexington Catholic 17-4-1.