Lady Lyons defeat Crittenden

Above, Paige McKinney displays her “hands off” policy
–Photos By Levi Holsapple

It was the second district matchup in as many days for the Lady Lyons soccer squads on Tuesday. Avenging a loss to Caldwell County, Lyon (1-3) took the victory outscoring the Crittenden County (0-3) Lady Rockets 4-0. Lyon goalkeeper Emma Tucker recorded the shutout, the first of her varsity career and the second of Lyon’s season.
Lyon bombarded the Crittenden defense early on with shot attempts from all angles of the field. However, it was not until the 16th minute of play that Lady Lyon Tori Jenkins scored when she was able to gain control of the ball from a Crittenden defender in front of the net and drill one past Crittenden’s goalkeeper Hannah Brantley. This put Lyon up 1-0 at the time, a lead that Lyon took into halftime.
The onslaught of shots at Brantley and the Crittenden defense continued into the second half. Lyon’s Shelby Snow did not wait long after the beginning of the half, with 39:21 left in the game, to take advantage of an empty net. This was after Crittenden’s goalkeeper was taken out of the net, trying to save a shot attempt by Paige McKinney. Snow’s goal put the Lady Lyons up 2-0.
McKinney scored the last two goals for Lyon. Her first coming just seven minutes after Snow’s when she outpaced a series of defenders to get a solid shot off and into the net, narrowly avoiding an offside call. Her second goal came less than a minute after a nice save by Brantley, denying a Sidney Greene shot from entering the net. From the right side of the goal box, McKinney elevated a shot into the far upper left corner for the goal. With the addition of both McKinney goals, the Lady Lyons took home the district victory.
In the junior varsity game, the Lady Lyons also picked up the win 1-0. Jill P’Poole scored the only goal for Lyon, which came in the first half of the contest on a breakaway. Tucker also picked up the shutout in the junior varsity game.
The next Lady Lyons junior varsity and varsity contests will be in a Graves County tournament, where each team will be playing two games. The first varsity matchup will be versus the host team on Friday at 6:15. The junior varsity will begin play Saturday morning when they face Fort Campbell, the second matchup of the two teams this season, at 8 a.m. Following the junior varsity game, the varsity will face John Hardin at 11 a.m. Lone Oak’s junior varsity team will then face the Lady Lyons junior varsity at 12:30. On September 8th, the Mayfield Cardinals and Lady Cardinals will host both Lyon varsity teams, beginning at 5:30 with the girls’ contest.