Round one of rivalry girls soccer took place on Tuesday, Sept. 17 as the Washington Lady Lions (3-6-1, 0-4 FAC) hosted the Miami Trace Lady Panthers (5-3, 1-3 FAC) in a Frontier Athletic Conference showdown.

Miami Trace enjoyed a 3-0 halftime lead and added three more goals in the second half to come away with a 6-0 shutout victory.

Five different Lady Panthers scored goals on the evening.

Karleigh Cooper scored two goals on six shots at goal, Nora Morrison scored one goal on six shots at goal, Alli Knecht scored one goal on two shots at goal, Marian Mara scored one goal on three shots at goal and Emma Hoppes scored one goal on one shot at goal.

Hailey Webster had two shots at goal and Belle DeBruin and Kaytlyn Burns each had one shot at goal.

Lily Siler, Morrison, Cooper and DeBruin each had an assist on a goal.

In goal, Ella McCarty had two saves.

For Washington, Jordyn Gray, Destany Snyder and Jannyah Villalobos Burns each had a shot on goal.

In goal, Evie Wiseman had six saves on 17 shots at goal.

Lady Panther head coach Chad Tolbert spoke following the victory.

“These girls all play club ball together, a lot of them are friends. We always get their best when we play them, and we did again tonight. They came at us hard. Our girls are playing really, really well right now. That’s our third win in a row. We are 6-3 now, and two of our losses were by scores of 2-1. The wet grass gave us a little bit of trouble on some of our shots and passes tonight, but when we play our game, it’s hard to stop us. I’m super proud of the girls, I feel like we finally got over the hump of kind of eking out wins and now it’s more dominating in wins. We are beating some teams that we have not beat in several years, so it’s good for us.”

Lady Lion head coach Brandan Ellars shared some comments after the loss.

“I’m proud of our girls. We’ve got two starters out right now. Eydyn (Gibbs) is missing out of the goal, and then one of our center-mids is on vacation this week. People don’t think that two position would make a difference like that, but when you have to start moving people around in other positions that they are not used to, it does make a difference. I’m proud of our girls for fighting. They didn’t have much fight in us this past Saturday and I challenged them to step up and give it 110% no matter who the opponent is. I feel comfortable saying that they give it 110% today and fought clear to the end. I mean, we got a yellow card at the end of the game. I couldn’t be more proud of their efforts. Miami Trace is a very well put together team, and I know that because I coach half of them and I’m around them a lot. They are going to continue to do good things.”

He finished, “We are right there. If we take care of a few little things, tighten it up just a little bit, make a little bit of cleaner passes and have just a little more fight in us at times, and that score tonight could look a lot different. Our league is pretty tough in girls soccer. As long as we compete and give 110%, I’m happy.”

Miami Trace (6-3, 2-3 FAC) will host Jackson (6-2, 3-1 FAC) on Thursday evening. Back on Aug. 27, the Lady Panthers traveled to take on the Ironladies and fell by a score of 2-1.

Washington (3-7-1, 0-5 FAC) will host McClain (8-1-1, 3-1-1 FAC) on Thursday evening. The Lady Tigers defeated the Lady Lions by a score of 4-0 during their first meeting on Aug. 27.

The Lady Panthers and Lady Lions are settle to battle again on Thursday, Oct. 3, this time at Miami Trace High School.