Hours after notching the program’s first All A state quarterfinal win, the University Heights Academy Lady Blazers were unable to make it two straight as they fell to Bethlehem 8-0 in the semifinals at the Barker Brown Athletic Complex in Louisville.
The Banshees have won three straight All A state titles and will play Walton-Verona for their fourth straight on Sunday.
The semifinal story was consummated in the game’s first ten minutes. UHA got three good looks to try and score first and play with the lead but couldn’t connect.
Bethlehem then scored three goals in three minutes to stun the Lady Blazers for a 3-0 lead.
“We had two really good looks. One was just almost a gimmie. Had we taken that one, I don’t think it would necessarily have changed the outcome of the game, but it certainly would have given us a different level of confidence to get, you know, to get stuck in and play with that bunch,” UHA coach Micheal Parker said.
Bethlehem boasts three players with 50 career goals and one of those – senior Carlie Thurmond – entered the game with 135 goals.
Ashlyn Miles scored the first of her three goals in the seventh minute. Thurmond scored the next two as the Lady Blazers had trouble clearing missed shots in front of the goal.
It was a three-minute stretch from which the Lady Blazers couldn’t recover.
I think this morning took so much out of us. We really should have played better this morning and had that game won more comfortably. As it was, we had to expend a lot of energy this morning. You could tell within 10-15 minutes tonight, we certainly didn’t have the legs,” Parker said, noting the Bardstown school’s strong roster presence with an enrollment of 296 students. “They’ve got numbers, you know, they’ve got 20 kids and every single one of them can come in and play. And they certainly just moved the ball around and made us chase the game all night.”
Miles would add her second goal in the 18th minute for a 4-0 advantage that stood at the half.
Thurmond and Miles each scored in the second half as Bethlehem (13-4-1) got goals from Taylor Janes and Aubrey Reynolds.
The Bethlehem defense held UHA to just five shots and none in the second half. The Banshees had 20 shots with UHA goalie Maddie Williams coming up with nine saves.
The eight-goal loss was UHA’s biggest since a 12-2 loss to Ohio County last year and the first shutout loss since Sept. 19 of last year – 5-0 to Hopkins County Central.
However, Saturday was the program’s first trip to the All A semifinals after two previous losses in the quarters in 2013 and 2019.
“This year was a great experience to beat Murray, get up here, and then, you know, win a game like we did this morning. We start eight of 11 freshmen or sophomores so hopefully that gives them the ‘want-to’ to come up here and continue to compete at this level,” Parker said.
The Lady Blazers have three regular-season games left before district and region tournament play begins, but Parker knows they won’t see anyone like what they saw Saturday night.
“We’re not going to meet anybody like that. They were, I think last week they were ranked number four (in the state). This week they were ranked number six. We’re not going to face anybody like that, we just need to get back to basics.”
UHA hosts Todd County Central Monday, travels to Madisonville Tuesday, and closes the regular season Thursday with Mayfield at Givens Field.
“Tonight we were disappointing in the fact that as good as they were, they got as out of our game. We weren’t even fundamentally sound, I can’t count how many times we kicked the ball straight to them,” Parker said. “We hadn’t been down like that this year and the scoreboard maybe got into their head a little bit, but we’re not going to face a team that good in our district or region, so we just need to get back to doing what we’ve done all season and I think we’ll be fine.”
