Lincoln Academy Lady Eagle soccer team defeated Oak Hill 1-0 in the West Class B preliminaries Friday in Newcastle. “It was a nice team effort. There was no let down, when the bench was in there,” coach John Schumacher said after the win.
The Raiders opened the game with a flurry of shots on three corner kicks, but the LA defense stood firm. After the initial rush, Lincoln settled down and dominated the rest of the half, out shooting Oak Hill 15-5 in the frame.
The Lady Eagles offensive pressure paid off with 29:41 to go off a direct kick from Sara Komorowski. Brooke Cheney and Chloe Maxmin got a foot on it in a wild scramble, before the ball settled at Haley Peavey’s feet. The wide open Peavey blew a shot past Raider keeper Margaret Sabine from 12 yards out for the game winner.
Second half action saw very few scoring opportunities from either team. Lincoln “dropped another defender down there,” to keep the Raiders off the boards, Schumacher said. Megan Chandler rang a shot off the cross bar in Lincoln’s best offensive effort of the half.
Oak Hill got off their first shot of the second half with 16 minutes to go. The Raiders got off five shots, keeping Emma Lazarri busy in net. Lazarri stopped a direct kick with four minutes to go, with Kari Jones making the clear. Jones and Sarah Alley made big defensive plays in the final few minutes to seal the win. Other defensive standouts in the game were Brianna Carroll, Sydney Plummer and Kelsea Miller.
Lincoln held an 18-10 advantage in shots. Lazarri made nine saves for the Eagles, and Sabine 13 for the Raiders.
