After being held without a win in two games over the weekend, the McCracken County Lady Mustangs made their way back into the win column on Tuesday, with a hat trick for Maddy Ledgerwood powering a 6-0 road win over Graves County.
“It’s a great confidence boost for them to bounce right,” said McCracken County head coach Mike Lane, following the victory. “As we’re getting towards the end of the season, we want to be playing our best, and starting to get downhill and build momentum before the postseason.”
Straight from the opening whistle, the Lady Mustangs poured pressure on the Lady Eagle defense, creating multiple early scoring opportunities along either wing. While Graves would make the stops on the first few chances, the Lady Mustangs would break through after 12 minutes, as a cross from Emma Hudson found its way to the feet of Maddie Ault for the opening goal.
With the defense turning away the occasional counterattack following the opener as the half rolled along, Maddy Ledgerwood would get on the scoreboard for the Lady Mustangs to double the lead, as they took a 2-0 edge into halftime.
While the Lady Eagles defense held steady in the early minutes of the second half, Ault’s second goal of the evening came just seven minutes later, as the Lady Mustangs began to run away with the win. Along with a goal for Ana Mendoza, Ledgerwood completed her hat trick down the stretch to put the finishing touches on the 6-0 victory, their first shutout of the season.
“We’ve been really harping on keeping a clean sheet this year. We actually wanted a game without allowing a shot, and we got pretty close to that, but we’re happy to keep a clean sheet,” Lane said. “I thought in general, we had a better second half than we did a first half. We weren’t attacking their goal with as much pace as we wanted to in the first half, or really penetrating behind their defense and getting into the box, but I thought we did a lot better of a job of that in the second half.”
Next up for the Lady Mustangs, they’ll have a chance to earn a key district victory, as they play host to Paducah Tilghman on Thursday night.
“I think the biggest thing for us at this point in the season is just to keep playing with confidence, and playing McCracken County soccer,” Lane concluded. “We want to be the ones dictating the pace and making teams play our style, not the other way around, and build up some momentum.”