After dropping their first meeting with the Indian Land Lady Warriors, the Catawba Ridge girls’ soccer team knew they were going to have a battle on their hands at the Pit Friday night.
That clash lived up to expectations as the Copperheads held off Indian Land to pick up a 1-0 win over the Warriors and split the season series with them. The win puts Catawba Ridge at 10-4 overall and 7-1 in Region 3-4A. Indian Land is 8-1 in region play with one region match left against Lancaster. The Copperheads have two more region matches against Northwestern and York.
“I am proud of every single player,” said Catawba Ridge head coach Brandon Schmidt. “We talked about staying up with the intensity and not taking a play off. We know who they are. We knew how talented they are. We knew it is going to be a playoff caliber team. “
Both teams were evenly matched to open the match. Indian Land seemed to control the first five minutes, but as the intensity of the rain at the Pit grew, so did the Catawba Ridge possessions.
Catawba Ridge found a rhythm and was able to start attacking the goal more during the first half of the match. Those attacks led to multiple shot attempts from straight on and off corner kicks.
As Copperheads’ head coach Brandon Schmidt continued to yell encouragement telling his team, “it’s going to come,” Catawba Ridge continued to push the pace.
With less than two minutes left in the first half, Sarah Sexton was able to slip a shot past the Indian Land keeper to score the only goal of the game.
The rain in the second half let up, but Catawba Ridge was still able to keep the intensity up for most of the match. Indian Land had multiple chances, but the Copperheads had just as many, if not more, but failed to convert.
Catawba Ridge controlled possession for the majority of the second half and was able to control things in limiting the Warriors’ opportunities.
The Copperheads will now face Northwestern on Monday, April 17 and then York Wednesday, April 26 to finish out region play. If both Indian Land and Catawba Ridge end up tied with the same record, they would be considered co-region champions.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
