Photo - Ava Roberts
The University Heights Academy Blazers will get the chance to play for a fourth straight 8th District championship. The Blazers moved on to the title match with a 4-1 win over the Fort Campbell Falcons in the semifinal round Tuesday night at the Stadium of Champions.
The Falcons gave the Blazers a battle but could not find enough offense to stay in the match the full 80 minutes.
UHA got on the board first just five minutes in when Griffin McCoy found the net to put the Blazers up 1-0. On the play, the Fort Campbell keeper made a play on the ball and misplayed the attempt, allowing McCoy to tap the ball into the goal.
Fort Campbell evened the match four minutes later as Dylan McDonald scored off an assist from Mateo Cerritos Gatto to tie things up at 1-1 just nine minutes into the match.
While it looked like maybe the Falcons had taken some momentum, the Blazers took it right back as Ryan Luckey scored at 10:00 to give UHA a 2-1 lead. That would be the score as the two teams went to the break.
Matthew Hauret extended the UHA lead at the 45:33 mark as he found the net, moving the Blazer margin out to 3-1. Griffin McCoy then put the final nail in the coffin for the Falcons as he scored again with six and a half minutes left in the match, pushing the Blazer lead out to 4-1.
For the night, the Blazers outshot Fort Campbell 14-1 as UHA’s backline defense simply refused to allow the Falcons any good looks at the net.
Fort Campbell’s season ends at 7-8-0.
University Heights improves to 11-8-1 and moves on to the district championship match Wednesday evening, where they will take on the Christian County Colonels. The match has been moved to Wednesday at 7:30pm due to the threat of rain in the forecast or Thursday.
Photos – Ava Roberts
