The Lady Mustangs defended their home field on Tuesday night by handing Calloway County their first loss to a region opponent in a 5-1 victory. After McCracken held a 1-0 lead at the midpoint, a second-half explosion with three Maddy Ledgerwood goals resulted in the victory for the home team.
This win against one of the premier teams in the region was certainly one the squad can use as fuel for the upcoming postseason, as head coach Mike Lane believes this squad is starting to peak at the right time.
“I keep telling the girls it’s not about the beginning of the season and the hardware we earn, it’s how we’re playing toward the end of the season,” Coach Lane said. “We need to be peaking at the right time headed towards the postseason, because that’s what we’re playing for. This was probably one of the tougher games we’ll end up with this regular season, but it was definitely a great win.”
There was just one goal scored in the first half, but a monumental one at that. Junior Maddie Ault was able to break the deadlock 25 minutes into the game, when she punched one in the top left of the net to give McCracken the lead.
As most of the first half was controlled by the Lady Lakers in their half of the field, the flip to get on the board first was a way for McCracken to regroup and control the pace once again.
“That’s the way the team gets momentum, and puts them on their back foot a little bit, to try and score a goal on us,” Lane said. “It was a great motivational thing that we did. We didn’t start out quickly. The first 10 minutes I didn’t know if this game was gonna go this way or not. Getting that first goal really did change the way we played.”
The second half script completely flipped compared to the opening stages, as five goals were scored over a span of just 20 minutes of game time.
Maddy Ledgerwood, who now has a team-high 29 goals on the year, scored in both the 46’ and 55’, weaving through the defense and rolling one in for her first, and beating the Calloway goalie to the ball for a skilled cross-body tap-in to make the score 3-0.
Five minutes after Ledgerwood’s pair, Savannah Watson got in on the scoring on an attack, her goal rolling just past the outstretched arms of the keeper near the right post, giving McCracken a 4-0 advantage with 20 minutes left in the match.
This is when Calloway was able to strike back, as Raylee McClure shot one from the right side that curved over the goalie and into the left side of the net for the score.
Just three minutes later, Ledegrwood solidified her hat trick with a free kick goal from just outside the box. This was the final goal of the night, as the Lady Mustangs captured the 5-1 win.
After a midseason slump of two ties and two losses, McCracken County has now won their last five matches to bring their record to 10-7-1, and now have just a pair of games left in their regular season. On Thursday, they will travel to Madisonville-North Hopkins High School to take on the Lady Maroons, before wrapping up the regular season next Tuesday at Murray High.
Calloway suffers just their second loss of the season and now hold a 13-2 record. They have four games left to regain that momentum before districts, including their next two this Saturday when they host Daviess County and Apollo.