Leading 1-0 at the halftime break Friday night, Catawba Ridge girls’ soccer head coach Joe Dority reminded his team to have fun in the second half and “go play for each other.”
His team responded accordingly, scoring three times in the final 21 minutes of regulation to cap off a convincing 4-0 win over Hillcrest in the second round of the Class 5A Division 2 state playoffs.
Ava Kenny opened the scoring in the 22nd minute, while Lauren Jackson, Brooks Dority, and Ellie Coxon all added goals after the hour mark to turn a tight game into a more relaxed atmosphere at The Pit.
“We knew we needed another (goal) to seal the deal, and they went after it,” Joe Dority said. “It was a matter of what wants it first.”
With the win, No. 3-seeded Catawba Ridge, now 17-6, will next play No. 2-seeded Eastside High School in the state quarterfinals Tuesday evening in Taylors.
Eastside won back-to-back state titles in Class 4A, and is looking for its third straight title in the school’s first year in Class 5A. The Eagles topped Fort Mill 1-0 Friday night in a marathon second-round matchup that lasted four overtime periods.
Catawba Ridge lost to Eastside in last year’s Class 4A quarterfinal round. Dority said his team isn’t facing any pressure this time around.
“Pressure? None,” he said. “(Eastside’s) the favorite, they’re state champions. They have all the pressure. We’re going in with nothing to lose. They’ve got probably the best player in the state (Payton Nutzman), but we’ve got our own All-State players. I think I can get the girls up and motivated.”
Catawba Ridge quickly recovered from a shaky start. Goalkeeper Lainey Kilpatrick bobbled a routine catch from a cross, leading Hillcrest sophomore striker Natalie Perry to take a shot from 12 yards, but her strike cleared the crossbar.
Brooks Dority had a chance on the other end of the field just a few minutes later when she was played through into the Hillcrest penalty area, but the sophomore midfielder finished just wide of the goalkeeper’s lefthand post.
Catawba Ridge opened the scoring in the 22nd minute. Kenny received a through ball into the Hillcrest box, then finished low to the keeper’s right to give the Copperheads a narrow advantage midway through the opening half.
Piper Hallberg forced the Hillcrest keeper into a tipped save over the bar in the 27th minute. Hillcrest’s Ava Degree turned a Catawba Ridge defender at the top of the Copperheads’ box and hit a left-footed shot, but Kilpatrick was able to snuff out the chance with a dive to her left.
Phoebe Serkin’s curling right-footed shot smacked the Hillcrest crossbar six minutes into the second half. But on the hour mark, Catawba Ridge finally earned its elusive insurance goal. Jackson found the ball at her feet just inside the Hillcrest penalty area and lofted a shot past Hillcrest’s Julia Moody and into the net.
Brooks Dority made it 3-0 Catawba Ridge with a sweet, 35-yard direct free kick that flew over Moody’s head in the top corner. And with just a minute left to play, Coxon sealed the night after cutting into the Hillcrest box from the wing and driving a shot past Moody to give the Copperheads a commanding 4-0 lead.
Joe Dority said his team had worked this week to be intentional about shot selection. He said his team is “dialed in.”
“Once they started not worrying about the pressure,” he said. “They just played for themselves. They’ve really grown. They’re very grounded. They know what they need to do, and they’re not too high on themselves.”
