Highlands is headed to their sixth region championship game over the past seven seasons with a win over Dixie Heights in the girls soccer 9th Region tournament semifinals.
Gabby Simon scored in the 69th minute to make it 2-1 and send the Bluebirds (14-5-4) to Saturday’s championship against Conner.
Simon stole a ball in the box from the Colonels and found the bottom left corner of the net to break a 1-1 tie.
“I was just looking to shoot,” Simon said. “Saw an opportunity so I took it. It was just a matter of getting off my foot and into the back of the net.”
After an early goal from Dixie’s Hadley Greene, Kendall Graves leveled things with yet another free kick goal. Graves did something similar in the Bluebirds 1-0 quarterfinal win over Cooper, connecting on a set piece.
“I try to put it on frame. Repetition,” Graves said. “My goal is to not kick it over and get it just over the wall so it stays under the crossbar.”
The momentum remained on the Bluebirds side out of the break. They doubled the Colonels in shot attempts in the second half and added three corner kicks to set themselves up. They opened the half with multiple shots on goal.
“The second half was definitely the team that we are,” Bluebirds coach Kelsey Etherton said. “We proved we can create chances over and over again, coming from different angles and opportunities. Those first five minutes set the tone and we dominated almost that whole second half.”
Simon’s game-winner was her fourth goal of the season as the Bluebirds will meet the Cougars at 1 p.m., Saturday on Conner’s home turf. Conner won the lone regular season meeting, 2-0 back on Sept. 30. That was Highlands last loss.
“We created a lot of opportunities and we had a ton of shots when we played them earlier in the season,” Etherton said. “None of them fell and we’ve spent a lot of time just, honestly, practicing shooting. I think that the work that we’ve put in the last couple of weeks since our Conner game has prepared us so that those goals or those shots will fall.”
Greene’s goal was her 13th of the season for Dixie, who finishes with a 14-5-4 record. Colonels’ keeper Emery Rowland collected five saves. The loss is their fourth straight in region semifinal games, all by one-goal deficits.
Dixie struggled to put much on goal, the Bluebirds Bailee Class needing to make just three saves.
Photo slideshow below, provided by Charles Bolton:
