Posted11:10 p.m. October 19, 2006 West shocks OR 2-1 By Mike Blackerby editor@oakridgesports.com
West struck early and late Thursday night, stunning host Oak Ridge 2-1 and denying the Lady Wildcats their 12th-consecutive District 3-AAA soccer tournament title. Playing in a steady downpour and on a water-logged field that made executing the simplest of soccer maneuvers almost impossible, the Lady Rebels pulled off the improbable. West’s Duggan Hahn provided the game-winner at the 36-minute mark of the second half as she tapped in a deflected shot by Oak Ridge goal keeper Lauren Fritts who had just made an outstanding save. “Fritts makes a great save and the ball just goes to the feet of a West player,” said OR coach O.J. Sheppard. Even with the loss, Oak Ridge lives to play another day. The Lady Wildcats (15-6-1) will answer the bell for the Region 2 semifinals at 7:30 Tuesday night at Farragut. The Lady Admirals (17-4) pulled off a mild upset tonight in the District 4-AAA title game as they stopped Bearden 2-1. That means West (13-4-1) will host the Lady Bulldogs (16-2-2) in Tuesday night’s other regional semifinal game. Tuesday’s losers are done for the season while the winners move to Thursday’s championship game and then continue on to sub-state play. West struck quickly as the Lady Rebels scored just 2 minutes and 48 seconds in to go up 1-0. Then the rain picked up and the field conditions went downhill quickly. Sheppard said it was the most difficult playing conditions he has ever seen. “Even at game time, the field was 95 percent playable. Then the rain just kept coming down and I’ve never seen it worse. I knew we were in trouble then. We’re a finesse team and (the field conditions) just took everything away from us.” As they say, weather can be a great equalizer. After all, this was a West team that Oak Ridge had defeated handily 4-1 just three weeks earlier. “I don’t want to take anything away from West, but the rain just evened it out. My hat’s off to West.” Oak Ridge finally got on the scoreboard in the second half when Trenna Howell tallied off a Gwen Lawson assist at the 19:53 mark. The Lady Wildcats actually controlled the action for most of the second half before West closed with a flurry of activity in front of the Oak Ridge net in the waning minutes. The Lady Rebels made judicious use of only five shots on goal. Meanwhile, Oak Ridge had five SOG in the first half and seven in the second, but could manage only the lone goal by Howell, who now has 27 scores on the season. Sheppard said he has no doubt his team will bounce back Tuesday against a Farragut team they’ve already beaten twice. “It’s tough to beat a good team three times. It’ll be interesting to see how bad they want it, but I think they’ll come back hard. Tonight, they felt the pain, but they still have the opportunity to play again.”