Lady Wildcats Soccer
editor@oakridgesports.com KNOXVILLE--Oak Ridge hasn’t lost a district soccer game in 11 years. To the surprise of probably no one, the old district status quo played out true to form once again Tuesday night as Oak Ridge pounded West 4-1 on Bill Wilson Field in a match that wasn’t as close as the score might indicate. Coach O.J. Sheppard’s No. 2-ranked girls improved to 10-3 overall and 5-0 in district play while West dropped to 6-3. After losing three games in the recent Collierville Invitational, Oak Ridge has feasted on district opposition since returning. “What you see here is the coming together of what we learned in Memphis,” said Sheppard. “With those three losses the girls figured we have got to step it up. Tonight we saw the fruition of that.” Senior Courtney Brackins turned in a stellar performance for OR. Brackins bagged the final goal of the first half with less than two minutes to go to put the Lady Wildcats up 3-1. Brackins then supplied Oak Ridge with the only goal of the second half with 28 minutes and 44 seconds left to play.. Brackins made a couple of nifty moves in front as she outmaneuvered West freshman goalkeeper Caitlin Cody to score her second goal from point-blank range. “Courtney Brackins was on fire tonight for us,” said Sheppared. “She was finding a lot of combinations for us.” Oak Ridge finally got on the scoreboard with 22:30 to go in the first half when Jamie Grigsby tapped in a Trenna Howell shot that had been deflected in front of the goal by Cody. The Lady Wildcats had four solid scoring opportunities in an eight- minute span early in the first half as Cody thwarted two Howell shots on goal along with solid scoring attempts by Brackins and Angela Lee. “We probably made her (Cody) look better than she really was,” said Sheppard, referring to the missed opportunities. Howell put Oak Ridge up 2-0 with about 13 minutes remaining in the opening half when she tallied on a shot in the corner of the net from about 15 yards out. West’s Courtney Hutchins answered less than two minutes later as she scored on a direct kick for the Lady Rebels’ only goal of the night. In addition to Brackins’ excellent play, Sheppard lauded the efforts of Howell, Thanh Lay and Brianna Buckley. Oak Ridge travels to Kingsport this weekend as the Lady Wildcats compete in the D-B Fall Classic. OR plays Greeneville on Friday before squaring off against host Dobyns-Bennett and Sweetwater on Saturday. Sunday, it’s another Oak Ridge and Farragut showdown. “It’s going to be a tough tournament this weekend,” said Sheppard. “Greeneville is very physical, D-B is 11th in the state and Farragut is seventh. It’s another tough weekend for us.” Oak Ridge’s final regular season district game will follow at Karns on Oct. 3. |
