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Senior Anna Gray goes in for a kick at the scrimmage Thursday evening, in which the Lady Devils practiced alongside Mountain Area Christian Academy.
Larry Griffin
lgriffin@thesmokymountaintimes.com
The Lady Devils soccer team won its first game of the spring season, triumphing over the Smoky Mountain Lady Mustangs in a 4-2 game at Smoky Mountain High School Monday.
According to Coach Scott Cline, neither side scored for the first 10 minutes until Lady Devil Mya Burrows-Kurr took the ball down the right sideline. She crossed to Lola Collins, who got the ball in the back of the net and scored.
The Lady Mustangs scored 20 seconds later and it was 1-1, with the rest of the first half spent in a stalemate with neither team breaking through defenses.
After 16 minutes more, the Lady Devils pulled ahead – Junior Karena Cline found Burrows-Kurr down the sideline, and Burrows-Kurr was able to beat some defenses and the goalkeeper and get the ball in.
Minutes later, senior Anna Gray lined up a free kick and got the Lady Devils up to 3-1. The Lady Mustangs got to score again on a penalty kick following a foul by the Lady Devils. But the Lady Devils came back as Burrows-Kurr stole a ball from an opponent and delivered the final goal of the game.
Cline said the game was a good one overall, with “some good ball movement all around the field.”
The defense was led by Gray, who got 10 clears/steals, while junior Rose Carson got four and junior Sophie Matz got three.
Burrows-Kurr was the player of the game, and Cline said she “did a great job stepping it up offensively for us.”
“Numerous times she battled through multiple defenders determined to score a goal for the team,” Cline said.
The Lady Devils also scrimmaged with Mountain Area Christian Academy on Thursday night, Feb. 22, ahead of the beginning of the season. Cline said it was going well – they have several returning players and practice has been going as planned.
Cline said they have their top two scorers and their top two in assist, along with several good defenders. He said they also have several freshmen students who will be able to help out, too. So Cline said he thought the Lady Devils were starting the season in good shape.
He said the scrimmage had been a “good opportunity.”
“It was a good opportunity to see the outcome for how our players are going to play,” he said. “We got to try some things, some different options, to play across players and develop some plays.”
The team won the conference championships the past two years and Cline said they were looking to build on “what we’ve already done” this year and make it to playoffs.
One of the ways they plan to do that is by facing off against some different teams during the regular season, including more charter schools.
“That will help prepare us,” he said. “It will be more practice against teams at a high level. It will be practice for different scenarios that could happen at playoffs. Some charter schools are from more populated areas, but they’re still 1A schools.”
The Lady Devils will play at home against Franklin today, Thursday, Feb. 29, at 6 p.m. – an anticipated rematch, Cline said, as the two teams finished with a tie last year.