Cheered on by her friends, her school family, and her future college teammates, Catawba Ridge senior midfielder Emma Sexton turned in an inspiring performance Thursday night at The Pit.
Sexton scored all three of her team’s goals to lead the Copperheads to a convincing 3-0 win over A.C. Flora in the Class 4A girls’ soccer state quarterfinals.
Catawba Ridge who improved to 14-1 will now advance to play at Eastside May 10 in the 4A Upper State championship.
Sexton said she was motivated by a substantial home crowd turnout, which included her friends and classmates, as well as a few of her future teammates from Lander University, where she’ll play college soccer in the fall after graduation.
“It was such a great atmosphere,” Sexton said. “It meant a lot to me to have a good win in my last time on this turf.”
The win Thursday was the last chance Catawba Ridge’s seniors will get to play at home. The semifinal will be played on the road and the Class 4A championship game will be played May 15 at Irmo High in Columbia.
Sexton and the senior class went unbeaten on home turf this season, amassing a perfect 7-0 record at The Pit. This season has been one filled with eye-popping statistics. So far, Catawba Ridge has scored 122 goals this season, while conceding only seven.
Visiting A.C. Flora found a few chances on goal, but was never able to truly threaten goalkeeper Shyann Holt and her defense. The Falcons showed visible signs of fatigue. This was A.C. Flora’s second straight playoff game in less than 24 hours after topping Easley 1-0 at home Wednesday.
Head coach Brandon Schmidt said he never changed the game plan from Monday’s 4-0 first-round win over Greenville. His marching orders to the team?
“We wanted to start fast and go fast,” he said. “We knew they had a tough situation, so we wanted to bring it to them and catch them off guard.”
Sexton was key to that mission. The senior played the entire game Thursday with a wrist cast covering her left forearm after fracturing her radius bone late in the Greenville game.
But it was clear that never affected her mobility or her movement. In the 15th minute, she danced through the middle of the A.C. Flora back line, beat two defenders, then beat Falcons’ goalkeeper Jasmine Frierson for the opening goal.
Sexton doubled the Copperheads’ advantage with a well-timed header in the 33rd minute off of Kyleen Bents’ corner kick. And in the 65th minute, she completed the hat-trick, shooting from 20-yards out and finding the back of the net off of a fortunate deflection.
So, what was Sexton’s favorite goal?
“Probably the first one,” she said. “It really got the momentum going, the team got encouraged, and I think we started playing as hard as we could after that.”
Sexton said the team has been “like a big family” all year, and that this season has been the most fun one she has had yet. And even amidst the excitement and the pressure, she said she feels like a state title is within Catawba Ridge’s grasp.
“I think it does feel real,” she said. “We want it real bad. We want to do anything to make it happen.”
Schmidt lauded his team, which he said acts like on-field coaches during the game.
“I’m just so pumped,” he said. “The girls did exactly what we needed them to do.”
Soccer
Nation Ford girls’ soccer team shutout the Blythewood Bengals in the 5A quarterfinals with a 4-0 win on the road. It was their second consecutive road playoff victory as they advance to the 5A Upper State championship Monday at JL Mann. The win allowed Nation Ford to improve to 14-5 overall.
Baseball
Fort Mill beat Catawba Ridge 10-4 on the Jackets’ senior night. The Jackets were led by Conner Rasmussen, Keenan Sumner and Nathan Brooks, all of which had two hits in the game. Catawba Ridge had just four hits. Chase Krueger got the win for Fort Mill going four innings allowing three runs on two hits while striking out six and walking two. The win put Fort Mill at 14-10 overall and dropped Catawba Ridge to 15-8-1. The two teams will play again Friday night at Catawba Ridge.
