GRC girls soccer falls to state’s top team, West Jessamine, 6-3

Published 3:43 pm Thursday, September 5, 2019

George Rogers Clark traveled to Nicholasville Wednesday night to take on West Jessamine, the state’s top-ranked girls soccer team according to MaxPreps.com.

The Lady Cardinals hadn’t played in nearly a week, but they were able to get juniors Allie Bush and Leslie Hernandez back on the field after recovering from injuries during the team’s time off.

The game was a defensive battle for the first 15 minutes, with the ball changing possession frequently and neither team getting a good opportunity to score. West Jessamine was finally able to get the scoring started with 25 minutes left in the half.

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GRC looked to tie the game up quickly, just a few possessions later they got an over-the-top through ball to Bush with only the keeper in her way, but her feet couldn’t keep up with the ball and the Colts All-American goalie scooped it up.

The Colts made nice runs on the counter-attack, allowing them to score and take a 2-0 lead just four minutes after their first goal.

Another Colts goal came just eight minutes later and the Cards were in trouble, down 3-0.

The third goal was a wake-up call for GRC and their offense starting clicking. Hernandez had a chip shot that looked as if it was headed in, but the Colts keeper saved it. Delaney Manning had back-to-back plays where it looked as if she was going to score, one chip shot on an empty net that went just wide of the left goal post and a long shot from outside of the box that sailed just over the crossbar.

The Lady Cardinals kept attacking and finally got a shot to fall on a rocket from Hernandez after capitalizing on a bad pass from West Jessamine.

Carrie Stevens, GRC’s goalie, was able to make a big save just before halftime to send the Cards into the locker room with a manageable 3-1 deficit.

The offense didn’t stop at halftime, as the Cards came back out firing in the second half. Another Hernandez goal just three minutes into the half brought them to within one, and one minute later she had her another shot go just wide of the post.

With 30 minutes to play, a corner kick for the Colts went into the box and Stevens was able to get her hands on it but it fell in to put West Jessamine back up two.

Needing to score, GRC sent a beautiful ball from near their goalie’s box to Manning on the other side of the field, who crossed the ball to GRC’s other wing Bush who got it in the middle to Ciana Araya who was able to finish the ball and bring the Cards back to within a goal.

The Cards weren’t able to find the goal again and gave up two late goals to give the Colts a 6-3 win.

GRC plays again tomorrow when they take on another one of the state’s top teams, Henry Clay. The game is set to kick off at 12:30 p.m. at the new GRC complex.