The Madisonville-North Hopkins Lady Maroons took the first step towards the top seed for the 7th District soccer tournament Tuesday evening. The Lady Maroons got two goals from Madison Hill and limited Hopkins County Central to just two shots on goal for the match as Madisonville-North Hopkins blanked the Lady Storm 4-0 in Mortons Gap.
The Lady Maroons can now lock up the top spot in the district tournament Thursday night when they host the Caldwell County Lady Tigers.
Tuesday night, the Lady Maroons got on the board at the 8:00 mark to get things started. On a throw near the corner, Macy Wright got the ball all the way into the box in front of the net where Hannah Davis sent it into the net to give Madisonville-North Hopkins the early 1-0 lead.
Just over nine minutes later, Madison Hill broke clear on a run down the left side of the field. She fired a shot off from near the front of the box that crossed the face of the goal into the right side of the net and extended the lead to 2-0.
Hill scored her second goal of the night at 28:15 on a penalty kick after the Lady Storm were called for a hand ball inside the box. Hill drilled the shot and gave the Lady Maroons a 3-0 lead that would carry into the break.
The Lady Maroons controlled the flow of play for much of the half. Madisonville-North Hopkins outshot the Lady Storm 14 to 1 in the first 40 minutes.
The three-goal margin held until 70:00 when Hadley Hodges took a loose ball that was in front of the goal and drove it past the Hopkins County Central keeper to make it a 4-0 lead.
For the night, the Lady Maroons outshot the Lady Storm 20 to 2. Madisonville-North Hopkins got solid defensive efforts from several players including Taylor Barber and Hannah McKinsey.
Savannah Barnett had eight saves in goal for Hopkins County Central.
The Lady Maroons improve to 5-2-1 with the win and 1-0 in 7th District play. Up next is a Thursday night home district matchup with Caldwell County.
Hopkins County Central falls to 3-4-1 and 0-1 in district play. The Lady Storm travel to Webster County on Thursday.
