The Hillsboro Lady Indians kicked off their tournament play on Tuesday night on their home field as they hosted a familiar South Central Ohio League opponent Washington Courthouse.
After all was said and done, the Lady Indians took home the convincing victory with a 8-0 shutout over their opponents.
The Hillsboro girls, usually a slow starting team, got things going early with a goal off the foot of Hope Tira from an Ashleigh Baucom assist to make the score 1-0 just five and a half minutes into the game.
Two minutes later, Madison Marsh followed with a goal of her own to make the score 2-0.
Cadence Myers was involved on the next two goals, assisting on the first goal, kicking the ball to Hope Tira who headed it in for a 3-0 score, and then kicking one in herself which hit a Washington player and found it’s way into the back of the net.
Maddie Marsh struck again with a goal with 9:38 to go in the first period and Mallory Sluss finisshed off the first half scoring with a goal with just 1:20 to go before the buzzer to make it 6-0.
Things were relatively quiet in the second period as the Lady Indians only scored two goals. The first goal was from Lillian VanZant at the 13:54 mark, and Mallori Crum finished the game off with a goal with 50 seconds to go in the game to bring the final to 8-0.
“I was really pleased with how the girls came out and played tonight,” said Hillsboro head coach Jeremy Ratcliff said after the win. “We’ve been kind of a slow starting team all year and that kind of our focus tonight to come out and get out to a quick start and I think the girls did a really nice job of that.
“Tonight was a good indicator in regards to where we are at tournament-wise. The girls look like they’re ready and that they’re hungry.”
Up next for the Lady Indians will be SCOL league winners Chillicothe who defeated Hillsboro twice this year.
“Chillicothe Thursday night is going to be a stiff test,” said Ratcliff. “The girls know what Chillicothe is going to bring to them. I thought our last game with them was a pretty evenly matched game. We made one mistake and let a girl kinda run free and they capitalized on that, which they’re a good team that’s what they do. We have to be able to capitalize on their mistakes. We just couldn’t do that in that game.”
The Lady Indians are 10-4-3 with the win as they will travel to Chillicothe for the sectional finals game on Thursday.
Reach Robert Stegbauer at 937-393-3456 ext. 1679 or on Twitter @RStegbauer.
