Despite the stakes, it was the same approach for the Campbell County girls soccer team.
After losing to Bishop Brossart in the 37th District championship, they knew what they needed to do moving forward. They’ve won four straight games since that point, Monday something they’ve never done, win a state tournament game by beating Boyle County 3-2 in Claryville.
“After the Brossart loss we really came together and we just say, ‘hey, just go one at a time,'” Camels coach Bob Morris said. “Doesn’t make much difference in the regional tournament, take it one game at a time. Just beat the next team and tonight we had a chance to make history and we did.”
Kennedy Crowley recorded a hat trick as she opened the game with a goal less than two minutes in, closed the first half with a goal with less than a minute to go and the game-winner came with a little over five minutes to go in the game.
“We couldn’t have done without all of us connecting and communicating and working as a team,” Crowley said. “And we wanted it more than they did.”
Photo slideshow below, provided by Charles Bolton:
Crowley’s performance was dominant, but the Camels (15-8-3) second half performance was just as dominant. They controlled possession through the majority, held Boyle County (17-7-2) to three shots, just one of them on goal while putting 10 shots up and seven of them on target.
Tied at 2-2 and the game trending toward extra time, Meryem Gonulates sent a cross into Crowley, who finished with 5:40 to go in the game.
“We were connecting really good in the second half and couldn’t have done it without Meryem,” Crowley said.
Crowley’s first goal came off a header, her sister Caitlin sending a corner kick into the box and Kennedy getting her head on the ball and into the back of the net.
Boyle regrouped from there, taking momentum back with a flurry of chances, finally breaking through in the 32nd minute on Addison Hazlett’s goal. Six minutes later, Maggie Burke suddenly put the Lady Rebels up 2-1 on a strike from outside the box.
The scoring wave wasn’t done to end the half, Crowley beating the Lady Rebels keeper to a ball and just getting enough of a foot on it to get it past the goal line.
“We kind of got a little lucky there. We got a good play up top to put that second goal in which was a big equalizer right before half,” Morris said. “So at halftime, we said our whole season comes down to 40 minutes and we came out and played like gangbusters.”
Campbell County will now face Lexington Catholic, LexCath a 3-2 winner over Highlands in a penalty kick shootout. The quarterfinal matchup will be played at Campbell County, the date still to be determined. It will happen on either Thursday, Friday or Saturday, pending the outcome of the Campbell County boys first round state tournament game on Tuesday against Somerset.
