Old rivals to meet again for a third time in state championship game
Lexington Catholic’s girls’ soccer team plays its Louisville counterpart Sacred Heart every year, sometimes two or even three times. The Knights almost never beat them.
This year, the Knights have topped the Valkyries twice already.
Now, they need one more.
Both Lexington Catholic and Sacred Heart advanced to the KHSAA Girls’ State Soccer Tournament championship game with strikingly similar 3-1 wins over North Laurel and Greenwood, respectively, Wednesday night at Henry Clay’s Robert Bell Stadium.
“They’re going to come out as hard as they can and that’s what we’re going to do, too,” said sophomore forward Mary Martin Hampton, who had the closing goal against North Laurel after sprinting onto a through-ball from midfield by Emily Scanlon. “Sacred Heart is such a strong team, but I think we can get them a third time. (We’ll) just bring everything we have. We’ve worked way too hard to give it up now.”
The championship is 4 p.m. Saturday at Henry Clay.
Under first-year Coach Christian Lauria, Sacred Heart stumbled out of the gate this season with four losses in their first five games, including 1-0 and 5-0 defeats to Lexington Catholic back in September. They’ve since righted the ship and won 12 straight.
“With everything going on and the short preseason, we struggled, but all the credit’s to them,” Lauria said of his players. “They stayed the course, believed in what we were trying to do, believed in the style of play we wanted them to do … we challenged them: take chances, take chances. We’ll learn from our mistakes. We will never know if we don’t try.”
Sacred Heart’s leading scorer, Mallory Glass, knocked in the Valkyries’ third goal of their semifinal against Greenwood. She said Sacred Heart is eager to show it’s no longer the team that lost 5-0 to LexCath last month.
“We’ve definitely had a hard journey to get here, but we’ve gritted, we’ve hustled and we’ve earned every second of it.” Glass said. “At the beginning of the season we had a few players out, and we’ve definitely got our full roster back. … We’re ready. We definitely want that back and prove that (5-0 loss) wasn’t our best game. We want to get back. And we want to win state.”
The semis
Playing defending champion Greenwood, Sacred Heart seemed to dictate more of the pace early and finally broke through when Katie Barney found herself unmarked at the top of the box and fired a shot into the lower right corner of the goal to make it 1-0 at the 22:04 mark of the first half.
A free kick near midfield set up Gracie Leith’s goal to make it 2-0 with seven minutes until half. The deep ball got knocked on by a header toward the Greenwood keeper, but was spilled into Leith’s path. Leith put it home.
The Gators cut the lead to 2-1 on Paige Hines’ score with 26 minutes left in the game, but Sacred Heart answered with Glass’s score off a corner kick.
In the other semifinal, Lexington Catholic also gave up a goal to bring North Laurel back into the game midway through the second half when Madison Dagley caught LexCath’s keeper off her line on a shot from distance.
But LexCath’s Olivia Bretz made her mark on the game in the first half with a pair of long-distance strikes herself to stake the Knights to a 2-0 lead at the break. Emily Scanlon broke down the defense along the end line and put the ball on a plate for an unmarked Bretz at the top of the 18. Bretz’s shot blazed just under the bar less than 10 minutes into the game. Bretz struck again from almost 40 yards out at the 26:22 mark with another rocket just under the bar for the 2-0 lead. Hampton’s second half goal sealed it.
The history
Even with the two losses to Lexington Catholic, the MaherRankings.com math favors Sacred Heart (16-4-1) as the No. 1 team in the state heading into this week. LexCath (16-2) is No. 3.
Sacred Heart has 10 finals appearances with six state titles. Lexington Catholic has eight finals appearances with one state title.
Dating to 2001 when the KHSAA began keeping its soccer history online, Lexington Catholic has played Sacred Heart 32 times. Before this season the Knights had won only three of those meetings. They’ve tied twice.
Two matches have come in the state finals, the last time coming in 2015, a 1-0 win for Sacred Heart. The first time came in 2002, a 2-1 overtime win for Lexington Catholic and Coach Terry Quigley.
In this odd season, history matters less. Now means more.
“In June, we weren’t even confirmed a season, so it’s just great that we’ve got to get this far,” Hampton said. “It’s been so much fun to keep winning.”
Now, they need one more.
Saturday
Sacred Heart vs. Lexington Catholic
What: Girls’ high school soccer state championship game
When: 4 p.m.
Where: Henry Clay High School
Records: Sacred Heart 16-4-1, Lexington Catholic 16-2
Tickets: Online only (KHSAAtickets.org)
Watch: KHSAA.tv (pay-per-view)
This story was originally published October 29, 2020 at 12:23 AM.
