After Wednesday’s region soccer semifinal win over Madisonville-North Hopkinsville, coach Michael Parker asked his University Heights Academy squad how many were 15 years old or younger. Over half raised their hand. UHA’s last region title came 15 years ago and Parker’s “Baby Blazers” are 80 minutes away from bringing home a championship trophy after a 4-1 win over the Lady Maroons.
In Tuesday’s quarterfinal win over Lyon County, the Lady Maroons marked their leading scorer Alice Smith with a pair of defenders. They tried the same tactic Wednesday against Kendall Hancock, UHA’s leading scorer.
A night after putting up 55 shots in its quarterfinal win over Union County, the Lady Blazers found the shots tougher to come by against the Lady Maroon defense.
“I think we started off slow tonight, but once we got that first goal, it kind of let everybody settle down and realize that we’re going to get opportunities,” Parker said. “We got that first one, and the confidence went up.”
That first goal came from Hancock as she veered through the Lady Maroon defense in the 24th minute to get the Lady Blazers on the board.
Audrey Perry followed three minutes later when she banged home a shot from the top of the box for a quick 2-0 Lady Blazer lead.
Hancock’s second goal of the game and 43rd of the season came off a pass from Audrey Grise in the 32nd minute. The goal was set up by a nice save along the sideline from Skyler Cantrell, who kept a pass from going out of bounds and fed Grise who found Hancock for the 3-0 lead.
Madisonville got on the board in the 37th minute when Ella Knight headed in a corner kick from Madison Hill.
The 3-1 score stood up at halftime.
“I told the girls at half-time that we’d take a 3-1 lead before the game started. I thought we created a lot of chances,” Parker said.
The story of the second half was the UHA defense. After giving up seven shots in the first half, they held Madisonville to five in the final 40 minutes.
“Once we got the first (goal) and then the second obviously, at that point, then we could drop one or two if needed. But I just thought that as a whole, nobody was walking back. They’re sprinting back to get into the spot and ready to go. And I just thought as a group, I thought we were really, really on it tonight,” Parker said.
Freshman goalie Maddie Williams made 10 saves for UHA, equaling a season high.
The win was UHA’s first over Madisonville (10-9-1) since winning in penalty kicks in the 2019 region tournament. The teams played to a 2-2 tie earlier this season and the all-time series is tied 9-9-3.
UHA (18-2-1) will play Henderson County (12-8) in Thursday’s championship match at 5:30.
The Lady Blazers beat Henderson 7-1 on September 14 for their first-ever win over the Lady Colonels.
Henderson County ended UHA’s season in the region tournament for seven straight years from 2015-21.
But Parker knows that’s ancient history with his young team.
“Everybody talks about how young we are. And we are. We start eight kids as a freshman or sophomores. But I don’t think they think they’re young. I think that we’ve put enough good performances together this year that when the whistle blows, we start playing and we don’t think about the age. We just want to get after it. And I’m hoping that we can do Thursday.”
