Marshall County hosted South Oldham on Thursday in the Elite 8 round of the KHSAA Girls Soccer State Tournament. It was the first Elite 8 appearance for the Lady Marshals since the 2009 season. South Oldham out of Region 8, defeated Bullitt East 4-0 in the Sweet 16 to advance to the quarterfinals.
This is the fourth straight year South Oldham has advanced to the state tournament and their most recent of eight state titles came in 2022.
At the end of the night, it’s the Lady Dragons who will advance to the state semifinals with a 3-0 victory. The final four will take place at Paul Lawrence Dunbar on October 30 and they will take on the winner of Saturday’s Sacred Heart and Madisonville-North Hopkins game.
“Their (South Oldham) ability to play high level competition day in and day out, top 25 teams day in a day out…that shows”, Head Coach Michael Boone said in post-game comments to WCCK’s Aaron Clayton. “We knew we weren’t going to see a ton of the ball tonight. First half I thought we were anxious a little bit. They are an 8-time state champion for a reason and as young as they are they’re going to be super dangerous these next couple of years.”
Two and a half minutes into the match, South Oldham’s Maggie Murphy scored off a corner kick and it remained a 1-0 lead for the Lady Dragons at halftime.
Marshall County goalkeeper Savannah Dodd came up with a great save on a South Oldham strike less than four minutes into the half. The Lady Dragons had another opportunity three minutes later on a shot on goal that went off the crossbar then cleared out by the Lady Marshals defenders.
The South Oldham offensive pressure for the first half of the second half would eventually pay off with a goal at 27:05 by Blair Hartman. Five minutes later, a goal by Abigayle Hammons put the Lady Dragons up 3-0 which held up until the final whistle.
“Our girls worked hard the whole game”, said Boone. “Savannah getting the All-State Tournament Team…we wouldn’t be here without her. First round she saved a bunch of balls that probably could have been in the back of the net against most anybody else. She deserves that award for sure.”
Boone said he can’t say enough about the attitude and effort of his players this season.
“I try to tell the girls…think about where we were last October getting ready to graduate 10 in the senior class that was very leadership heavy and kind of the mentality of what we’re going to do this year and to not only beat McCracken, beat Murray, win the region then break the 15-year string of not winning the Sweet 16 game”, said Boone. “This team has done things no team in the program has ever done before in terms of having to beat a top 10 or so team from the opposite district.”
Boone added that after the players have some separation from the disappointment of the season being over, it will set in a little bit more of what this team was able to do and how they made their mark on the Lady Marshals program.
The Lady Marshals end an outstanding season with a record of 20-5-1.
Lexington Catholic and North Laurel also punched their tickets to the final four with wins on Thursday.
