HIGH SCHOOL

Central Magnet’s unbeaten season ends on penalty kick

Kenneth Schott

MURFREESBORO – A penalty kick made the difference in the Region 4-A/AA semifinal soccer match Tuesday at Richard Siegel Soccer Complex.

Chattanooga Christian’s Sara Farlett kicked the penalty kick to give the Lady Chargers a 1-0 victory over Central Magnet, ending the Lady Tigers’ season.

CCS was awarded the penalty kick after Central Magnet goalkeeper Abby Coleman made a running slide toward the ball, but slid into Farlett instead and took her legs out from under her.

“It was a decision that probably shouldn’t have been made,” said Central Magnet coach Ray Bennett. “The ball was played wide. The keeper went running out, should have stayed on her feet, but she decided to slide into it, and ended up getting nothing but the player.

“It was mistimed, that’s all. I’d definitely rather see them pull it off in the run of play, not (lose) like that.”

The Lady Tigers (19-1) and Lady Chargers battled back and forth throughout the match. Both teams had several opportunities but neither could score until the penalty kick.

“It was very evenly matched, back and forth,” said Bennett. “We had moments where we gave up possession and we had moments when we were driving, being very dangerous. It was a juxtaposition of the two games.”

In the final 10 minutes Central had several shot opportunities. Two went off the post and one went right off the keeper’s fingertips but the Lady Tigers couldn’t capitalize on the opportunity and Chattanooga Central was able to recover it without any damage done.

“We definitely created some problems for them,” said Bennett. “We were unlucky. We had that one off the keeper, off the post, we just didn’t have anyone to tuck it in. We had two very, very close kicks off the post in the last 10 minutes.”

It was too close for comfort for Chattanooga Central coach Cal Sneller.

“It was too even for me,” Sneller said. “I don’t want to drive this far and play somebody even. I’m glad it’s not a super-duper road trip back.”

This year’s region semifinal was the closest of the previous three semifinals. Central, which was outscored 16-1 to CCS in the 2011-12 region tournaments, lost 2-0 to Notre Dame in last year’s region semifinals.

“(Central’s) an extreme quality team,” said Sneller. “What they went from last year to this year, they’ve come a long way.”