National Trail’s Josie Stiner cuts off Tri-County North’s Rylie Myers as she tries to work the ball up the sideline.
Photos Ron Nunnari | The Register-Herald
LEWISBURG — Sophomore Lillian Cordle scored off a corner kick by Megan Irvin with 9:43 left in overtime Monday night to lift No. 13 seed National Trail to a 2-1 victory over No. 10 seed Tri-County North in the girls soccer Southwest 3, Division V sectional.
It was the first ever sectional tournament win for a National Trail girls soccer team.
Cordle accounted for both National Trail goals. The Lady Blazers also defeated North 2-1 in the final game of the regular season on Oct. 8.
Cordle put Trail on the board first as the Lady Blazers held a 1-0 halftime lead. Lily Thompson answered with a goal for North about eight minutes into the second half to make it a tie game.
The difference in the tournament victory was a few big defensive plays to pre-empt a pair of Lady Panthers goals along with the overtime corner kick.
“We’ve been practicing that corner kick,” said National Trail coach Molly Denlinger. “This is the third time that we’ve had to play North this season and they kind of learned our corner kicks pretty well, so I put a new one in our system for this game. That was actually one of our old ones that we got the score off of.”
The Lady Blazers made two huge plays in the second half to keep from falling behind 3-1 during regulation play. TCN’s Rylie Myers made a kick toward the center of the net when Trail goalkeeper Chloe Oliver was out of position to the left side of the goal.
Just before ball headed into the net a National Trail defender raced in and prevented the ball from entering the goal.
Later the same thing happened when TCN freshman Reese Myers launched a shot. This time midfielder Ollie Mason turned on the afterburners and caught up with the ball just in time to clear it away from goal with 28:07 left in regulation play.
The Lady Panthers generated several scoring opportunities in the second half but couldn’t get their kicks to find the back of the net. Some of those kicks sailed wide, but Trail goalkeeper Taylor Reynolds, a freshman, made 13 saves to keep North at bay.
Those repeated assaults on goal made it appear that Tri-County North held the momentum and that it would only be a matter of time before the Lady Panthers would secure the lead. But it was not to be.
Cordle converted the corner kick by Irvin in overtime to stun the Lady Panthers. Irvin’s kick landed right in front of Cordle and she got off a shot. Oliver deflected the shot but Cordle got the rebound and nailed the ball into the back of the net for the win.
With the victory National Trail advances to play Anna (9-4-3) Oct. 17 at Anna in a 5 p.m. game.
Trail improved to 8-8-1 overall while TCN ends it season at 8-9-0 overall.
“The girls played with so much heart after coming back from not having a season last year to being able to move on in the first round of tournament – it’s big,” Denlinger said.
Last year National Trail didn’t have enough players to assemble a full team. This year’s team won five of its last seven games and hopes to keep that momentum rolling in the district quarterfinal at Anna.
Reach Ron Nunnari at (937) 684-9124 or email [email protected].
