Henderson Survives UHA Effort in Girls Regional Soccer Final

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For the last 70 minutes of the girls 2nd Region soccer championship game Thursday night, the UHA Lady Blazers outplayed the Henderson County Lady Colonels. The problem was, however, that the Lady Colonels did just enough to get a 2-1 win over the Lady Blazers in a hard fought championship match at the Stadium of Champions.

Early on, it looked like Henderson County might try to run off with the lead and hide. Maddie Griggs found the net at the 6:45 mark, putting the ball to the lower left corner of the goal, just out of the reach of UHA goalie Lainey Burman, to give the Lady Colonels an early 1-0 lead.

Just three minutes later, Henderson County was celebrating again, as Abbey Roberts scored on an assist from Griggs to extend the Lady Colonel lead to 2-0.

UHA got on the board at 18:40 when Grace Pape bent a corner kick into the net from the left hand side of the field. The goal cut the lead to 2-1 and it completely changed the flow of the game. From that point forward, the Lady Blazers were the team with all the momentum, while Henderson County had trouble getting the ball into UHA’s end of the field.

Neither team found the net for the rest of the half, as Henderson County found themselves clinging to a 2-1 lead at the half.

UHA’s control of the match continued into the second half. The Lady Blazers were the aggressors, and Henderson County became the team just trying to find a way to hold on for the regional championship.

UHA had several chances in the second half to tie the match, but just could not get the ball into the net. Lilly Strader blasted a shot from the left front that bounced off the right post at 52:00. Grace Pape just missed a direct kick from front center at 55:00. Strader barely missed shots from the left side at 59:00 and 72:45. Pape had two corner kick opportunities in the final two minutes, the second of which skidded across the cross bar just before the official blew the final whistle to end the match.

After the match, Coach Michael Parker, while disappointed with the lost, expressed pride in his team for the battle they fought in the disappointing one goal loss. The game was far different than when the teams met in September and Henderson County came away with a 5-0 win.

The Lady Blazers end their season at 13-7, while Henderson improves to 18-2-1.

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