With West Union keeper Jaisyra White smothering the ball, North Adams attacker Laney Ruckel attempts to avoid contact in action from Monday night’s Division III sectional tournament game in Seaman. White did an admirable job in goal but the host Lady Devils took home the win by a final score of 5-0, thus moving to the sectional finals. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)

By Mark Carpenter-

 

After completing an unbeaten and once tied regular season, the North Adams Lady Devils girls soccer team made their first foray into postseason play on Monday, Oct. 14, hosting county rival West Union in a Southeast District Division III sectional semi-final contest. The Lady Dragons advanced to the sectional semis with a 5-4 win over Fairfield on Oct. 12 and were up against a North Adams foe that had knocked them off twice in the regular season.
Coach Kevin Hunter and his West Union squad are one of the most improved teams in the area from start to finish but again on Monday night they just had an impossible time penetrating the North Adams defense and got nothing past Lady Devils’ keeper Alaina Eiterman.
“West Union certainly didn’t make it easy on us,” said North Adams head coach Morgan Hendrickson. “They kept up with us really well and did a nice job of pushing us to the outside by making it difficult to get to the middle of the field. I can see how far West Union has come and it’s a good thing to see. I always enjoy seeing teams make those kids of strides during a season.”
In the first half of Monday night’s action, most of the first half was played on the North Adams offensive end, thought the two teams were scoreless over halfway through that first half of play. The scoring ice was broken at the 19:39 mark with a goal by North Adams’ Ainsley Grooms, who took a pass from center back Mary Sonner and fired one home from close range. The second North Adams goals was a gift from the Lady Dragons as a West Union defender tried to clear the ball but accidentally kicked it into her own goal and the Lady Devils took a 2-0 advantage into the halftime break.
For 49 minutes the Lady Dragons did an outstanding job of marking North Adams leading scorer Karissa Buttelwerth but the high-scoring junior got on the board at the 31:24 mark when she used her off foot to find the top corner of the net, just out of the reach of West Union keeper Jaisyra White, to give the home team a 3-0 advantage. Twelve minutes later, it was Grooms scoring again, this time with the assist coming on a perfect left-footed cross from Breanna Piatt and the game’s final score came again from Buttelwerth, who retrieved a rebound off a Braylie Jones shot and booted it home to make the final 5-0 North Adams.
“We were happy to get some good looks on goal this evening,” added Coach Hendrickson. “I got some really good minutes from some of my younger players and I thought our girls did a really nice job controlling the ball most of the game.”
The Lady Devils were back in action on Thursday, Oct. 17, hosting a Division III sectional championship game, with their opponent being Ironton St. Joseph. (That result was not available at press time.)
“We are just focused on taking each tournament game one game at a time, we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.” said Hendrickson. “We haven’t faced St. Joseph since last season and we still have things that we would like to improve on and look forward to the challenge.”

North Adams’ Kaylee Tumbleson, left, and West Union’s Lila McElroy, right, battle for possession during the Oct. 14 sectional tourney game at NAHS. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)