Chester County eliminates Westview

HENDERSON – The Chester County girls’ soccer team has played well at times during the season, and then there were other times that the Eaglettes were blown out. Chester County coach Jason Judd said his team would take vacations.

But since the postseason started last week, those vacations haven’t happened.

Chester County has been strong through all four matches. On Tuesday, the Eaglettes beat Westview 6-1 in the Region 7 A-AA semifinals.

“We came to play,” Judd said. “You go back to the Sacred Heart game late in the season. Sacred Heart was undefeated at the time in the area. When we beat them, it was either a shot of confidence or the girls just deciding to say, ‘step up and go.’

“Since then our only loss is to USJ.”

Chester County (14-6) advances to the Region 7 A-AA championship and will host Lexington on Thursday at a time still to be finalized.

The Eaglettes came out and scored quickly to beat Westview. Chester County took a 2-0 lead in the first 10 minutes and continued to add on.

Senior Talia Hinson scored the first goal in the second minute on a shot from 20 yards out that went over the goalkeeper’s fingers, and sophomore Lauren Austin scored the second goal in the eighth minute off a cross from sophomore Paige Pipkin.

Austin and Hinson led throughout the game as Austin finished with a hat trick and Hinson two goals.

“Ever since we changed the lineup, it has worked a lot better,” Austin said. “We have also talked about being positive out on the field, and that is better than us being negative and having a bad attitude.”

Chester County added two more in the first half on Austin and Hinson’s second goal for each, which came off of an assist from freshman Anslee West.

Westview’s goal also came in the first half by senior Megan McClure.

Chester County changed the tempo in the second half but still looked to push the ball forward.

“In the first half, we did a good job pushing for goals,” Judd said. “In the second half, it was more possession. We know that we are going to have to have possession-type game going forward.”

In the 62nd minute, Pipkin took the ball in the defensive six-yard box and dribbled it across the field and scored. The final goal came with one minute remaining as Austin finished her hat trick on a cross from senior Cami Melaro.

“It was not about going out and scoring goals and scoring goals,” Austin said. “We wanted to keep the ball, making runs and moving the ball. When we got the ball up top, we looked to score.”

Michael Odom, 425-9754