Lady Cougar Soccer travels to West High for preseason play day

TOP PHOTO: Campbell Lady Cougar Soccer was in play day action on Saturday as Casey Clark, in goal, is looking as Lily Hatfield clears the ball.

By Amber Cowell

KNOXVILLE, TN (WLAF) – The Lady Cougars took to the pitch Saturday afternoon at West High School for their preseason play day.  The Cougars played three back-to-back thirty-minute games against teams from around East Tennessee.

The first game was against one of Campbell County’s rivals, Oneida.  Oneida came out strong and scored within the first few minutes.  Soon after, Freshman Kylie Ivey scored the equalizer.  The Cougars could not hold on however and lost to the Indians 1-3.

Morristown East was the next opponent.  The Cougars moved the ball beautifully with strong crosses which resulted in a goal from Junior Sage Elwin.  The Cougar defense was able to keep the Hurricanes at bay which helped the Cougars hold on to their lead and come away with the win 1-0.

The third and arguably toughest opponent of the day was the Alcoa Tornadoes.  Senior goal-keeper Makenzie York defended the goal with authority but one shot made it through.  The Cougars pressured Alcoa’s defense and had shots on goal including a promising free kick but were unable to find the back of the net.  Although the Cougars looked very strong, they fell to the Tornadoes 0-1.

Head coach Bryan Horton’s thoughts of the day, “These game are so important for us every year but more this year as we lost so many players to graduation.  We as coaches use these games to find out the players that can use what they have learned in practice in a game situation.  And to try players at different places on the field to see what will help the team the most.  All in all it was a great day with all players getting much needed playing time.”

The Lady Cougars head to Clinton as they host a preseason play day Saturday, August 7.  The regular season kicks off in Kodak on Tuesday, August 17, against the Northview Cougars. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 08/03/2021-6AM-PHOTOS COURTESY OF WLAF’S AMBER COWELL)