By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Sectional championships have become the norm for the North Adams High School girls soccer program and the tradition continued on Wednesday night as the Lady Devils made it eight consecutive sectional titles with an 8-0 shutout win over the visiting West Union Lady Dragons. The streak includes four sectional crowns for former head coach Dave D’Avignon and now four for current head coach Morgan Hendrickson.
Wednesday night’s game matched up a pair of Adams County squads and the action was dominated by the host Lady Devils, who played nearly the entire game on their offensive, allowing the Lady Dragons very few touches at all. North Adams goalkeeper Harlee Brand was credited with another shutout in her record-breaking season, though she was barely challenged in this win. Kudos also go out to West Union keeper Jaylynn Mason, who may have given up eight scores, but likely saved three times that many shots. The Lady Dragons were also competing with just 10 players and fatigue obviously caught up in the second half, as the Lady Dragons’ defenders were in perpetual motion all night.
The Lady Devils got three of their goals in the first half, the first by Laney Ruckel (29:15), the second by Emmy Holt (26:30) and the third by Carlee Garrison (22:37).
In the second half, sophomore Raylan Eldridge got the first of what would be a three-goal game for her at the 34:12 mark, followed by Ruckel’s second goal at the 15:23 mark. With 10:15 to play, Kenlie Jones fired in a bullet from about 15 yards out for a 6-0 North Adams lead and less than a minute later, Eldridge knocked in her second. Eldridge made it the hat trick with six minutes to go for the final score in an 8-0 North Adams triumph.
The win was the 13th in a row for the red-hot #3 seed Lady Devils, who improved to 16-1 overall for the season. They now advance again to the Division III district semi-finals where they will face #6 seed Rock Hill on Monday, October 24 at Northwest High School. Rock Hill was a 9-0 winner over Piketon on Wednesday night.
The hustling and scrappy Lady Dragons end their season with an overall record of 2-14.