For Todd County Central, Saturday’s appearance in the All A Classic Girls’ State Soccer Tournament was about gaining crucial ‘big game’ experience as the program continues to build for the future.
Making its first state quarterfinal appearance in four years, the Lady Rebels fell to Brown High of Louisville 10-0 on the Collegiate Field turf.
Kenley Herrington had a hat trick for the Bears including the first two goals of the contest.
Adyson Luttrell also tallied three goals for the Bears (12-3) who put up 22 shots in the match and held the Lady Rebels without one.
Sophie Garrett tallied a pair of goals and Madilyn Stewart scored one.
Brown’s final goal came from junior Trista Morris, who along with her twin sister Taylor, became the program’s first-ever Division-I commitments last month. The sisters gave a verbal to the University of Louisville. Taylor didn’t play Saturday as she is on the mend from an ACL injury suffered before the season began.
For Lady Rebel coach Charity Harrah, it’s the experience on and off the field she hopes makes her squad better over the final month of the season.
“I was hoping that my midfield and my defense would start working together to cut some of their passes off. We switched to a flat back (defense) after playing a diamond. We started that three weeks ago so they’re still adjusting to getting used to pulling and trading off,” she said. “There were some struggles there but it’s gotten immensely better since we started it.”
The switch appears to be paying off, Saturday’s result notwithstanding. Todd Central allowed 34 goals in its first six games but had given up just nine in its past four games coming into Saturday.
Todd Central also dealt with its season-long numbers issue, dressing only 11 players for a match that began with a temperature of 91 degrees.
“It does get a little bit more challenging,” Harrah said, especially making sure team communication is more positive than negative.
Despite the loss, Harrah is hoping the weekend experience not only pays off later in the season but in future years for the program.
“For all of these girls, this (All A State) was their first one. We are still going to count today as a win, have some team bonding, and not leave here sad.”
Todd Central (2-8-1) will get a chance to improve its district seeding on Tuesday when they host Russellville before a Thursday non-district battle at Barren County.
Coverage of the Todd County Central Lady Rebels in the All A Classic State Soccer Tournament is sponsored by Planters Bank.
