The Gibson Southern Lady Titan soccer team hosted the Central Lady Bears at The Fort on Sept. 28, for the final regular season matchup. The Lady Titans have found immense success throughout the season thus far, with a record of 14-0-1. The girls tied the Jasper Lady Wildcats in a scoreless matchup. The Lady Titans finished the regular season 11-0 in the Pocket Athletic Conference, winning the conference title outright.
The game started out in a defensive battle for both teams, with both goalies seeing heavy action right away. Both Gibson Southern and Central had several shots at the goal early on in this matchup.
“We started the game with the intention of trying to place our shots accurately because they had a very talented goalie,” head coach Sylvia Sellers said.
As time moved later into the first half of play, the Lady Titans were the aggressors but still could not find the back of the net. Good passes and footwork set up several quality shots for the Lady Titans throughout the first half, but they could not put it past the Lady Bears’ goalkeeper. The Lady Titans’ senior goalkeeper, Chloey Graham, kept the Lady Bears scoreless heading into the break.
As both teams returned to start the second half, each looked for early opportunities to score, pushing the ball upfield and ending the long scoring drought.
“Going into the second half, we didn’t want to change anything, just keep possessing and connecting passes and get some more shots off,” Sellers said.
It wasn’t until late in the second half that the Lady Titans were in optimal scoring position. The ball was placed perfectly for sophomore Corinne Stevens, close to the goal, in which she snuck the ball past the Lady Bears’ goalkeeper to put Gibson Southern on the board.
“I was not very confident that the ball was going to go in, so thank goodness it did,” Stevens said.
That late goal from the Lady Titans proved to be enough in this matchup, as the Lady Bears could not find a goal to tie it up with minimal time still left on the clock. As the last second expired, the scoreboard read 1-0 in favor of the Lady Titans. This win pushed the girls’ record to 15-0-1. They are now looking to the postseason.
The team’s main focus is preparing to play and beat Memorial in the Sectional semifinal.
“Looking forward to playing Memorial,” Sellers said.
The Lady Titans will play their Sectional games at Heritage Hills, in which they take on the Lady Wildcats from Mt. Vernon in the first round.
