Sophomore forward Gillian Johnston scored four times for the Lady Cougar soccer team to lead them to a 4-0 victory over Breckinridge County in the opening round of the 11th District Girls Soccer Tournament, which is being held at the Cougar Soccer Stadium.
The win assures Grayson County of a place in next week’s 3rd Region Tournament, which will be held at Meade County. It also sends them to the 11th District final on Wednesday, where they will face Meade County for the championship at 6 p.m. Meade made short work of Butler County in the other semi-final on Monday, scoring 10 goals before halftime to win by the mercy rule.
The Lady Cougars had split their two regular-season meetings with the Lady Tigers, with the Lady Cougars winning 2-1 at Breck in August, then the Lady Tigers beating Grayson County for the first time ever, 1-0 in September at GCHS.
This time it was all Grayson County from the start, with the Lady Tigers never mounting a serious scoring threat at any time. The Lady Cougars applied pressure in the early going and had a couple of good chances in the first 12 minutes of play that were turned aside by Breck goal tender, Abby Shannon.
But the Lady Cougars broke through in the 13th minute following a beautiful crossing pass from freshman Ellie Evans to Johnston, who beat Shannon on her right side for the only goal the Lady Cougars would need.
Evans had her own scoring opportunity in the 18th minute, gaining control of the ball behind the Lady Tiger defense, but she was unable to get a good strike on her shot, and Shannon was able to keep the ball out of the goal. The half ended with the Lady Cougars maintaining their 1-0 lead.
Ten minutes into the second half, Johnston was on the board again. Taking a pass from Evans, Johnston unleashed a shot from about 15 yards out that Shannon was able to stop, but not control. Johnston grabbed the rebound and sent another shot at the unattended goal, only to see a Breck defender kick that shot away. Johnston kept coming and when the ball came back to her, her third attempt was good to make it 2-0.
Just two minutes later, Johnston was at it again. Breck was awarded a goal kick, but Shannon’s following kick went straight to Johnston, who took it in and put it into the net to make it 3-0, and the life went out of the Lady Tigers.
When Johnston again lit up the scoreboard just two minutes later to make it 4-0, it was all over but the shouting.
Breck had a couple of opportunities in the ensuing minutes, having one 3-on-2 chance in the 61st minute, but were unable to get a shot off. A 5-on-4 chance in the 60th minute led to a shot that went wide and that was it for the Lady Tigers.
Shortly after Johnston scored her final goal, she went down with a tweaked ankle and never returned. The injury did not look serious and she should be good to go in the final on Wednesday. In her place, freshman Mikayla Clemons had a good scoring opportunity with a little over six minutes left.
Freshman defender Destiny Frye controlled the ball in her own end and sent a long through pass upfield, where Clemons gained control. Charging toward the goal with a defender trailing, Clemons took a shot from just inside the penalty area, but the defender had caught up enough to get a foot on the ball and deflect it away.
By Don Brown, Local Sports
Reach Don at donbrown@k105.com
