Head coach Brandon Schmidt told his Catawba Ridge girls’ soccer team that he wanted them to start fast and move quickly in the first round of the Class 4A state playoffs.
The high-flying Copperheads team obviously listened closely to their coach. Catawba Ridge cruised to a comfortable 4-0 playoff win over visiting Greenville High Monday night at The Pit.
Senior midfielder Maren White and freshman midfielder Kyleen Bents both scored twice in the first half as Catawba Ridge built up an imposing lead, then controlled possession for the final 40 minutes to ice a spot in the state quarterfinals.
“We wanted to make sure we started fast,” Schmidt said. “That’s how we practiced, doing 1-2 touches, knowing where we were going to move the ball before it came to us. They did exactly what I expected of them.”
The Lady Copperheads, now 13-1, next play the winner of the first-round matchup between A.C. Flora and Easley. That first-round game was postponed until Tuesday night because of heavy rain.
Catawba Ridge will host the eventual quarterfinal matchup May 6, regardless of who wins in the A.C. Flora-Easley game.
Emma Sexton and Megan Tanis both had early chances to open the deadlock for Catawba Ridge within the first six minutes. But White was able to finally unlock the Greenville defense when she cut inside the Red Raiders’ penalty box and hit a low shot toward the left post that bounced in.
And White was on-target just four minutes later when she hit a similar shot from the same spot of turf as her first goal to make it 2-0, this time after collecting a rebound.
White said the team was pumped up in the pre-game warmups, and couldn’t wait to impose their style of “Copperhead ball” on the game.
“We had the home field advantage, everyone was pumping us up,” she said. “I was very excited. I loved having the people in the stands cheering me on. I just loved being here.”
The Copperheads made it 3-0 in the 26th minute when striker Adrienne Cooper found Bents in space on the right wing with plenty of room to operate. Once she had the ball, Bents was able to beat Greenville’s senior goalkeeper Sofia Corona with a curling effort from about 15-yards out. And she added a second goal from long distance, just before the halftime whistle blew, when her hard shot slipped under Corona and into the net.
Greenville, which had finished second in their region, finishes its season at 9-6.
Schmidt said his team is going to focus on how it plays, rather than playing against other teams. He said there’s always plenty of areas where his team can improve.
“We’re not there yet,” he said. “But we want to be focused on how we play, and to get better.”
