SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. – The Shelbyville Central Golden Eaglettes (11-3-1, 4-0-1) took down the Lincoln County Lady Falcons (6-6-3, 2-2-2) in the District 9-AAA semifinals, 2-0, on Tuesday night. 

With the win, Shelbyville clinched a spot in both the District 9-AAA Championship and the Region 5-AAA Tournament for the first time since 2022. 

“It [making the District Championship] is really exciting, especially with such a young group of girls,” Eaglettes’ Head Coach Casey Curry said postgame. “They’ve worked hard. We haven’t been here in a few years. It’s super exciting for our seniors because the last time we were in a District Final was their freshmen year.”

The Golden Eaglettes’ Kaitlyn Burk opened the scoring in the sixth minute, admittedly aided by a stroke of good luck. After getting the ball on the right flank above the box, Burk cut inside onto her left foot and unleashed a curler towards the far post. The Lady Falcons’ keeper initially made a save, parrying the ball up into the air, but the backspin took the ball behind her head and into the side netting for the evening’s opening goal.

“She [KB] is a great connector [in the midfield]. A lot of times she goes unnoticed because she doesn’t score a lot, but she is a playmaker,” said Curry, “She controls and connects the defense to the offense, and she’s a great leader.”

The Golden Eaglettes kept the heavy pressure up, but Lincoln County continually found ways to frustrate Shelbyville’s attack. 

In the 14th minute, Jayda Frazier found herself through on goal in a one-on-one situation on the right wing, but her early shot attempt was saved at the near post.

It took 25 minutes, but Lincoln County won its first corner of the night in the 26th minute, finally breaking the Shelbyville pressure for a moment. 

In the 39th minute, a yellow card was shown to the Shelbyville sideline for an equipment infraction.

Shelbyville managed to hold on to its 1-0 advantage going into halftime, but the tension was palpable inside the Eagles’ Nest due to Lincoln County’s defensive play.

“Our forward, Kyler Doak, who has scored lots of goals for us this season, they did double her, so we had to figure out how to make those connections in attack and just work together,” Curry said, “In the second half, we came out and they got on it.”

The first noteworthy event in the second half came in the 46th minute when Dara Frazier was shown a yellow card for delaying play by standing in front of the ball before a free kick.

After a couple corners were thwarted by the Lady Falcons, Mary-Grace Marshall nearly scored her second career goal in as many games in the 57th minute, but her long-range effort was denied by the crossbar.

Finally, in the 64th minute, Shelbyville Central found the crucial second goal, this time off of a set piece. After winning yet another corner, Jayda Frazier whipped in an outswinging ball off of her right foot, and it turned out to be a perfect delivery right to the head of senior Britzel Hayitin, who redirected the ball into the back of the net to give the Eaglettes a 2-0 lead with just 15 minutes left to play.

A pair of yellows were handed out shortly after, one to Lincoln County and the other to Jayda Frazier, but ultimately Lincoln County was unable to crack the stout Eaglettes’ defense.

Lincoln County’s season comes to a close.

Shelbyville advances to take on Franklin County in the District 9-AAA title game on Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. inside the Eagles’ Nest.