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Soccer

No. 2 Lady Roos hold off Aledo

Teams prep for district

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With district play set to begin the following week, the matchup between Weatherford’s Lady Roos and the hosting Ladycats was set to serve as a litmus test for both squads when they took to the pitch for varsity soccer action at Tim Buchanan Stadium on Friday, Jan. 17.

The scrappy Aledo squad entered the match sporting a 4-1 record as they faced off against the No. 2 ranked Class 6A club in the state. The match lived up to the billing as the two teams battled for 80 minutes with the Lady Roos edging out a 1-0 victory.

“I thought the girls battled,” Ladycats head coach Bryan Johnson said after the match. “What I liked was the fight that they had tonight. That’s something we hadn’t seen in a while. They got after it. They got after [Weatherford] for the entire 80 minutes. It was a great game!”

From the opening kick through the final whistle the match was a seesaw battle throughout. The center backs for both clubs snuffed out numerous runs towards the goal by the opposing offense.

The first real scoring threat in the contest came with under 15 minutes left in the first half. Weatherford striker Addy McElhaney slipped by the Ladycats defense as she raced towards the Aledo goal.

Senior goalkeeper Ava Fennell charged forward to cut off the advance. McElhaney lost her footing briefly, then recovered as Fennell dove for the ball. McElhaney gathered her footing just in time to dribble around Fennell for a wide-open look at the goal, putting Weatherford up 1-0 with 14:20 left in the first half.

The two teams came out of the intermission with gritty determination. Freshman Audrey Obana got the opportunity to get some time in the goal in the second half for the Ladycats, picking up where Fennell left off in the first half.

Center backs Emery Thompson, Reagan Tomlin, and Lillie Gideon made sure no Lady Roos got a clean look at the goal, while Obana picked up the scraps that made their way into the box.

With time ticking away and Aledo struggling to get a quality shot on goal, Allie Weimer got the Aledo faithful on their feet as she took the fight to Weatherford. Racing from midfield, she shook a trio of Lady Roos out of their cleats to set up a one-on-one opportunity with the keeper.

Weimer lined up her shot, striking a clean blow with her right foot. Seemingly coming out of nowhere, a Weatherford center back dove into the path of the ball, taking a shot to the torso, and knocking the trajectory of the ball beyond the endline.

The Lady Roos successfully defended the ensuing corner kick, leaving the Ladycats in a 1-0 deficit that remained as time expired.

“It bumped up some confidence that we didn’t have,” Johnson said when asked what this match did for his team’s confidence. “We’re not going to back down. We weren’t afraid. Some elbows were thrown out there, and we didn’t back down.

“We’re a young team. Today we started four freshmen. We lost 5-0 to Centennial. We lost 1-0 to Weatherford. I think those are the two best teams we’ve seen, and in between we’ve won four games. That’s enough for me.”

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