Girls’ 11th Region soccer tournament preview: Can anyone topple Lexington Catholic?
There’s a reason why Lexington Catholic has won five of the last six girls’ 11 Region soccer tournaments.
As much as tradition matters, speed, skill, confidence and determination matter more. And no girls’ program in the region has more of all those traits than last year’s state runners-up, the Lady Knights.
“We’re really clicking, and we’ve had such a good year,” said Mary Martin Hampton, who was one of four different players who scored a goal against Lafayette in their 4-0 win in the 43rd District finals. “We just come out every game confident knowing that we can win. This is a really hard district and really hard region we have to get out of, and we know that. We push ourselves to get where we are.”
The 11th Region Tournament kicks off Monday with each district champion hosting the first round against a drawn slate of district runners-up. Thursday’s semifinals and Saturday’s finals will be played at Sayre Athletic Complex in Lexington.
At its best, Lexington Catholic’s defense is smothering and seemingly everywhere. The Knights have recorded 15 shutouts thus far, ranking them in the top five in the state in that category.
Lexington Catholic makes its opponents uncomfortable all over the field, especially in the middle of the park and the attacking third where any loose touch by an opposing player can result in a nearly instant chance on goal for the Knights.
Lafayette, the highest Maher Rankings challenger in the field at No. 16, knows the danger well, suffering a pair of 4-0 defeats to the Knights. All four goals last week came in a blistering first half. Lafayette lost to LexCath in both the district and region finals last season.
If LexCath gets upset, it will take a complete team who isn’t intimidated by the LexCath jerseys or the players in them.
“We have a lot of sophomores, and I think there’s just that intimidation factor that we’ve got to get over that hump,” Lafayette Coach Taylor Roden said after their finals loss.
Senior Emily Scanlon leads LexCath in scoring with 20 goals, second only to Sayre freshman phenom Katherine Monohan (39) in the field. Juniors Kylie May Stephenson and Olivia Bretz top the team in assists with 14, and 11, respectively.
“They are playing really well together right now,” LexCath Coach Terry Quigley said.
But LexCath is not invincible. It has suffered losses to No. 3 South Oldham, No. 4 Sacred Heart and No. 7 Highlands. South Oldham outscored the Knights 4-2 on Aug. 21. Highlands knocked LexCath out of its own tournament in a 2-1 win on Sept. 13.
Here’s a closer look at the 11th Region field listed in order of their final regular-season rating by Maher Rankings among Kentucky’s top 100 soccer schools. The Maher Rankings computer formula rates teams based on a number of factors, including results, strength of schedule and historic data.
Lexington Catholic
Rank: 2
Record: 20-3
How they got here: 43rd District champion. The Knights outscored their district tournament opponents 9-0 and have won their last nine games, including the inaugural Kentucky 2A State Tournament. LexCath has not lost to an 11th Region opponent since 2019, a streak of 20 games.
Notes: Lexington Catholic has eight seniors, including three starters — Emily Scanlon, Sophie Skinner and Laura Banahan, a forward, a midfielder and a defender, respectively — who have been integral to their back-to-back region championships coming into this season. Coach Quigley is the state’s all-time wins leader for girls’ high school soccer with a record of 471-200-34 in a 30-year career.
Lafayette
Rank: 16
Record: 11-6-2
How they got here: 43rd District runner-up. Defeated Paul Laurence Dunbar 2-0 in the semis and have a 7-2-1 record within the region with both losses coming to LexCath and the tie against Frederick Douglass on Aug. 18. The Generals defeated first-round opponent Henry Clay 3-1 on Sept. 11
Notes: Lafayette has been ranked as high as No. 10 during the season, but lost four of its last six games, all to top 25 teams. The Generals have 10 sophomores, including scoring leaders Brooke Dawahare (10 goals, seven assists), Campbell Tippey (10 goals, five assists) and Lily Simpson (seven goals, four assists).
Henry Clay
Rank: 31
Record: 9-7-0
How they got here: 42nd District champions. Defeated Scott County 6-1 in the semis and Sayre 3-0 in the finals. The Blue Devils have won six straight games after a 3-7 start.
Notes: Sophomore Haley Flynn leads the team with 14 goals while junior Addison Kenny, who takes most corner kicks, has the assist lead with 10. Five different Blue Devils scored in the district tournament. Henry Clay hasn’t lost a district finals since 2013. It has reached the region finals three times in that span.
Great Crossing
Rank: 40
Record: 10-4-2
How they got here: 41st District champions. Defeated Frankfort 5-0 in the semis and Western Hills 2-1 via penalty kick shootout (3-1). The Warhawks defeated first-round opponent Madison Southern 2-0 on Sept. 9.
Notes: Sophomore Meren Patton leads the team in goals with 13. Fellow sophomore Ally Nowlin tops the assists column with four. Three of Great Crossing’s four losses have come to teams in the tournament (Henry Clay, Lafayette and Madison Central).
Madison Central
Rank: 48
Record: 13-5-1
How they got here: 44th District champions. Defeated Model 5-1 in the semis and Madison Southern 1-0 (2OT) in the finals on a goal deflected in by a defender as Kally Lloyd played a cross into the box with 2.1 seconds left in the second overtime. The Indians beat first-round opponent Sayre 3-1 on Sept. 13.
Notes: The Indians have won nine of the last 10 district titles. Maddie Eads leads 10 different goal scorers with eight goals. Tristen Hornsby has the assist lead with nine.
Madison Southern
Rank: 49
Record: 10-6-0
How they got here: 44th District runner-up. Defeated Berea 5-0 in the semifinals before losing 1-0 (2OT) to Madison Central in the finals.
Notes: Rebekah Christopher leads the team with 13 goals and eight assists. Ashlee Pisula and Mallory Duerson are also scoring threats with 10 and nine goals, respectively. The Eagles have lost six of their last eight games after starting the season 8-0.
Sayre
Rank: 56
Record: 14-6-0
How they got here: 42nd District runner-up. Defeated the district’s top seed, Frederick Douglass, in the semis by a 2-1 score via a 4-3 penalty kick shootout in which senior goalkeeper Catherine “Cat” Graves stopped two shots from the spot in a six-kick shootout. Lost to Henry Clay 3-0 in the finals.
Notes: Freshman Katherine Monohan ranks as one of the top goal scorers in the state for one of the state’s highest-scoring teams. Her 39 goals ranked 13th, according to KHSAA regular-season statistics. Sayre averaged 4.5 goals per game, ranking it 25th.
Western Hills
Rank: 75
Record: 10-9-0
How they got here: 41st District runner-up. Beat Franklin County 3-0 in the semis and lost to Great Crossing 2-1 (3-1) on a penalty kick shootout in the finals. Western Hills lost 6-0 to first-round opponent Lexington Catholic on Aug. 26 in the Kentucky 2A tournament.
Notes: Maddie Muller leads the Wolverines with 17 goals and 12 assists with Kennedy Carter scoring 14 goals and Ella Davis notching 11.
Girls’ 11th Region Tournament
Monday’s quarterfinals
6 p.m.: Lafayette at Henry Clay
7 p.m.: Madison Southern at Great Crossing
6 p.m.: Sayre at Madison Central
7 p.m.: Western Hills at Lexington Catholic
Thursday’s semifinals
At Sayre Athletic complex
5:30 p.m.: Lafayette-Henry Clay winner vs. Madison Southern-Great Crossing winner
8 p.m.: Sayre-Madison Central winner vs. Western Hills-Lexington Catholic winner
Saturday’s finals
At Sayre Athletic complex
Noon: Championship match
This story was originally published October 10, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
