CHATTANOOGA – The Lady Black Knights earned the chance to play in Chattanooga for an opportunity to advance to the Class 1A State Tournament, but fell just short for the second year in-a-row after losing 5-2 to Chattanooga School for the Arts & Sciences on Saturday afternoon.
“Sometimes it’s the way you match up with a team and I just don’t think we matched up well with them. I don’t know if it’s because we played so hard Thursday against Kingston or they just completely outmatched us. Today was definitely not our best day of soccer. They are the better team today and sometimes that happens,” Head Coach Anna Ricker stated.
As Coach Ricker put it herself, her ladies ran into a very talented team. The Lady Patriots of CSAS took control early and really never let up on the pressure. They doubled Chuckey-Doak in total shots 26-13.
“I think their tenacity was something we weren’t prepared for. They were all over us on defense,” Ricker stated.
For the Lady Knights, it was a privilege to play in this game. After the effects of Hurricane Helene, they didn’t know if they would be able to continue with their season. Many feared the season would be over after the floods, but the season continued and the Lady Knights made the most of the opportunity they had to play.
Chuckey-Doak ends the season 14-5-1 one game short of making another trip to Chattanooga next week.
The Patriots’ Chloe Benson struck first in the 3rd minute and put Chuckey-Doak in an early 1-0 hole.
The Lady Knights had an opportunity to score with a direct kick taken by Tavyn Southerland from 27 yards out in the 7th minute. The shot sailed left, but her next opportunity helped tie the score. Southerland’s next direct kick was blocked by the keeper but landed right at the feet of Aliah Campbell. Campbell connected and shot the ball past the keep for an equalizer. In the 18th minute Chuckey-Doak tied it 1-1.
“It was something that we actually worked on yesterday in practice so it’s good to see they remembered what we worked on,” Coach Ricker stated.
It only took 23 seconds for the Lady Pats to tie it. Ayanna Hamler scored her first of three goals to send CSAS back ahead 2-1. She netted another goal in the 37th minute to put her team ahead 3-1 going into the half.
After the half, the Lady Knights would try to draw closer but a quick strike from Hamler in the 58th minute secured her hat trick and sent CSAS up 4-1 and essentially put the game out of reach.
Layla Fox pulled the trigger from long range in the 60th minute to cut Chuckey-Doak’s deficit to 4-2 and give them a sliver of hope.
“She found a way to get away from them and just pull that one shot and it was good to see that she was able to pull one,” Coach Ricker explained.
Nine minutes later in the 69th, Ella Hurst essentially iced the game with a goal from outside the box to set the score at 5-2.
The Lady Black Knights would fall in the end by that score of 5-2 and watch their season come to an end.
“I try to always leave teams with this quote. But I always try to leave them with ‘don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened’ and this team has a lot to be proud of. They did a lot of wonderful things this season and they have numerous awards. A lot of success. Even though it’s over I’m super proud of them. I can’t even talk about anything except just being really proud of their effort and their hard work this season,” Coach Ricker left off with.
