Lady Champs move past MTC

HUNTLAND -- The Cascade girls soccer team has boldly gone where none of its predecessors have, the District 11-A/AA championship.

Tuesday night's remarkable 2-0 shutout against Middle Tennessee Christian has earned the Lady Champions a shot at a first-ever district title and a berth in the Region 6-A/AA tournament.

"I've known that we had the ability to do this," Cascade coach Monica Lewis said. "But I can't go out here and do it for them. I could not have asked for any more than what we had tonight. That was awesome."

The match kicked off with a fairly level playing field for both teams. The majority of the first half was essentially a battle for field position. Neither team threatened until around the 10-minute mark.

The Orange and Black (7-5) began to find some room to push the ball closer to scoring positions. There were several close shots on the goal and the Lady Champs started to find a rhythm.

The first half ended scoreless.

"We are slow to warm," Lewis said. "Once we get going, our momentum is there, but no matter what kind of warm-up we do, we do this. It scares me to death at the first of the games, but we come along; we usually do."

The pace of the second half picked up and the Wartrace girls steadied the Lady Cougar (10-2-1) attack. Emily Lewis and Jessica Popp teamed up to tack on Cascade's first goal 25 minutes into the half. Popp booted the ball to the right and connected with Lewis who dribbled around a MTC defender and singed the twine in the lower right-hand corner.

With just under two minutes left in regulation, Ashley Bledsoe sailed a corner kick and united with Laura Jett, who finished it off with a head-butted goal.

Goalkeeper Kayla Carden's 12 saves helped preserve the shutout.

"The girls have played well enough and long enough together," Lewis said. "Some of these girls have played together most of their life. They know when to switch up. They know where to go, they know where to be, and they know where the ball is going to be. And that was the key."

The Lady Cougars beat Cascade 2-1 in early September. The rematch meant some refocusing on the part of the Lady Champs. Lewis switched some things around a few games ago and changed their 3-2-2-3 formation to a traditional 4-3-3, which helped curve their scoring ability.

Cascade returns to Huntland to take on top-seeded Page in the finals Thursday night at 6. Page won 6-0 in the teams' last meeting.

"When we played Page earlier in the season, the first half they scored five goals on us," Lewis said. "The girls marked up and finally did what I asked them to do in the second half and (Page) only scored one. So we know now and (the players) know from experience what we have to do with Page. We have to mark and play defense and that's what we will do. I'm not as worried about getting in the goal as I am keeping them out of the goal. The whole team, I think, is with me on that."

In the other side of Region 6-A/AA, top-seeded Spring Hill (12-1-1) takes on No. 2 seed Fairview (14-4-1).