Lady Marshals win 2nd District Tournament 2-0 over Graves County

The Lady Marshals celebrate their 2nd District Championship after defeating Graves County 2-0.

For the 18th time in program history, the Lady Marshals are district tournament champions, beating Graves County 2-0 for the back-to-back title. Both teams will advance to next week’s 1st Region Tournament at McCracken County where it is likely they could meet again if history holds true. The last time two 2nd District teams didn’t meet in the 1st Region title game goes all the back to 2003.

Coach Michael Boone said his team didn’t play particularly well the first half and were fortunate to get the one goal which came from Carmen Gunn, her 23rd of the season, just before halftime.

The Lady Eagles had a great opportunity to score midway through the first half when a hand ball on Marshall County in the box set up a penalty kick, taken by Carly Arant that missed left of the goal.

The second goal of the game came near the 20 minute mark of the second half when Chasse Clark kicked it in through a crowd of players in front of the goal, assisted by Loralei Samson.

Carmen Gunn controls the ball defended closely by Graves County’s Carly Arant.

“The story is our backfield”, Boone said. “They’ve allowed five goals in 12 games now against regional opponents and I don’t know if they’ve allowed a goal since the Graves County game against district opponents. Sophie and Loralei well deserved to be on the All-District team but they could have easily put all four of them on it. They’ve really come together since midway through the season and there has been some consistency there and they just locked it down.”

In shutting out their opponents in their two district tournament games, the Lady Marshals left very little space for their opponents to run in to, shutting and closing down gaps and Boone added, “Defensively…our ability to just shut down some dangerous midfielders and attackers…both in the Calloway game and this game.”

Boone attributes some of that to the teams they schedule throughout the season, with strong attacking players, learning from mistakes and fixing things, and it pay off at this time in the season.

The Lady Marshals had 12 shots, eight on goal and eight corners with three saves by Carlen Whirley. Graves County had seven shots, three on goal, three corners and six saves.

All Tournament Team: Carmen Gunn (Marshall), Deborah Garcia (Mayfield), Parker Greer (Murray), Zoe Stom (Calloway), Carly Arant (Graves), Kylee Crass (Marshall), Raychel Mathis (Graves), Sofia Bayer (Marshall), Hannah Beth Elliott (Graves), Audrea Thomas (Mayfield), Elle Carson (Calloway), Shelby Turner (Graves), Hannah Lawson (Murray), Kiersten Houston (Calloway), Madeline Byrd (Graves), Loralei Samson (Marshall)

Marshall County’s Alli Chancellor and Graves County’s Brooke Fralicx battle for ball control in the first half of the 2nd District Championship.
Marshall County midfielder Taylor Droke, moving the ball for the Lady Marshals, keeping it off the foot of Graves County’s Carly Arant.
2018 2nd District All-Tournament Team