Spring Hill drowns Lady Champs' upset hopes

Cascade's Laura Jett pushes the ball upfield at Spring Hill during the driving rain at the Region 6-A/AA tournament semifinal. (T-G Photo by Danny Parker) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

SPRING HILL -- Clinging to a 5-3 lead, it looked like Cascade was on its way to another postseason upset, this time versus Spring Hill in the Region 6-A/AA tournament semifinals.

But, the Lady Raiders trounced on the Lady Champions' dreams with a trio of unanswered goals to win 6-5 amidst sheets of rain on a cold and dreary Tuesday evening.

Cascade earned its first-ever region tournament appearance by chopping down Middle Tennessee Christian in the District 11-A/AA tournament semifinals before falling to Page in the final.

"This has been awesome," Cascade coach Monica Lewis said. "If this is my first year with this group, I can't wait to see what next year holds because we have some more girls coming up that are good. You can see they play well together.

"This has been an awesome ride, this has been great."

With the win, the Lady Raiders (14-1-1) now face Page (19-0), who defeated Fairview 4-2 in its semifinal contest, for the region championship in Franklin on Thursday night at 7.

The teams went back and forth from the onset with Ashley Bledsoe taking an assist from Mary Saylors to put the Lady Champions on the board first less than two minutes in.

The Spring Hill duo of Brittany Habberley and Crystal Mackezyk was formidable throughout to say the least. Habberley tied the game at 1-all off an assist from Mackezyk just 71 seconds after the initial score.

Laura Jett tickled the twine to ease the Orange and Black out in front before Mackezyk answered with a goal off a Habberley assist three minutes later.

Kathleen Lohay fielded a pass from Jett to give Cascade the upper hand 3-2. Yet again, the Habberley answered with a tying score off a Mackezyk assist.

In the 22nd minute, it was Lauren Ware providing the go-ahead goal for Cascade with Bledsoe assisting. Bledsoe then made it 5-3 with a gorgeous ball dropped in from over 40 yards out for the final goal of her illustrious career.

"It's tough (to lose) because I think we really thought we had it," Lewis said. "We were wearing down some even though I was moving people in and out. It was still hard to keep the momentum up.

"It was a very physical game and that was hard. It was probably a little more physical on one side than the other, but I think it went both ways."

"I was expecting it to be a little bit more physical than it was. We've seen it get a little bit rougher," Spring Hill coach Windy Sanders said.

Habberley provided some momentum for Spring Hill as intermission approached by heading a pass from Mackezyk into the goal in the 33rd minute.

The second half belonged to the Lady Raiders as Mackezyk took an assist from Haley Warf to knot the game at 5-all before Habberley banged home the game-winner in the 74th minute.

"I really figured we'd go into overtime, but we just couldn't come back those last few minutes," Lewis said. "We just couldn't move the ball down. And, we were getting frustrated."

Goalkeeper Kayla Carden kept the Lady Champs in the match with 14 saves.

"Kayla did an awesome job," Lewis said. "I have yet to walk off the field and not be pleased with her performance. She's a good goalie. So often I'm asked by the other coaches who she is, even the refs, 'How old is she?' When I tell them she's a sophomore, they're like, 'Wow!' She has two more years with us, so we're very excited with that."

Cascade's season ends with a record of 7-7. It was the final match for Bledsoe, Saylors, Chelsea Johnson, Rebecca Rubalcaba and Aimee Taylor.

Lewis noted how the loss of these five ladies leaves big shoes to fill, but is hopeful that others will step up.

"The defense especially is a big gap," she said. "Playing a (junior varsity) team this year, I'm hoping has trained these girls and gotten them out on that high school field enough that they'll be able to step up. All of our sophomores played this year. Our JV team was mostly freshmen."