Chuckey Doak’s soccer team welcomed Lakeway Christian Academy to Lower Afton Tuesday evening and came away with an impressive 5-1 victory.
“I’m proud of every girl that stepped on the field tonight and how hard they played,” said Coach Anna Ricker. “We wanted to prove that we were a much stronger team than we were last year, and that led to one of the best wins that I have had as a coach.”
Things, however, did not start the way the Lady Knights would have liked.
Just over five minutes into the contest, Lakeway Christian’s Kylie Polluck slipped one past the Chuckey Doak keeper to give the Lady Lions an early 1-0 advantage.
Both teams continued to battle over the next several minutes, with neither side able to gain the upper hand. The Lady Knights, however, leaned on their physicality and speed while keeping in mind a theme emphasized by their coaching staff.
“If our opponent scores one, then we score two,” Ricker said. “We knew that we could fight back because 80 minutes is a long time.”
The comeback began at the 15:34 mark when Emera “Mimi” Merrill cleared the ball past the defenders, allowing Caitlin Larsen to do the rest. Larsen made a one-on-one move against the keeper and found the back of the net to knot the score at 1-1.
The score remained tied as both goalkeepers turned away scoring opportunities. That changed at the 36:08 mark when Lindsey Rojas sent a pass to Larsen, who drove the ball past the goalie and into the back of the net to give Chuckey Doak a 2-1 advantage.
The Lady Knights came out of the halftime break looking to put some breathing room between themselves and their opponent. At the 42:40 mark, Larsen found Betsie Ramirez, who fired a shot from approximately 35 yards out over the goalie’s head to extend the lead to 3-1.
Less than five minutes later, at the 47:06 mark, Larsen took matters into her own hands. From more than 35 yards away, she drove the ball over the line of defenders and just out of the goalie’s reach to complete the hat trick and push the lead to 4-1.
Larsen was quick to praise her teammates and the work the team had put in leading up to the contest.
“It wasn’t just me. It was such good team play,” Larsen said. “We worked in practice and in our past scrimmages on chipping it past the back four, so we recognized that, knew what to do, and it worked out for us.”
The final goal of the contest came in the 63rd minute when Merrill cleared a pass to Kati Surber, who directed the ball into the lower corner of the net to cap the scoring at 5-1.
Chuckey Doak, now 4-2 overall and 1-1 in district play, showed that it can play strong defense while also finding ways to score against quality opponents. The Lady Knights will look to carry that momentum into next week when they travel to Gatlinburg-Pittman to take on the Lady Highlanders next Tuesday. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m.
