H.S. SOCCER: Chester County's season comes to an end

MURFREESBORO – Four Chester County seniors – Cameron Greer, Talia Hinson, Destiny Morris and Cami Melaro -- helped pave the way for the girls' soccer program to find its spot twice in the Class A-AA state tournament – as freshmen and seniors.

Their strong high school careers came to a close on Wednesday as Knoxville Catholic beat Chester County 6-0 in the Class A-AA quarterfinals at Richard Siegel Soccer Complex.

"I can't put into words what the four seniors have meant to this program," Chester County coach Jason Judd said. "They were a big part of getting us to Chattanooga as freshmen, and they have been leaders on this team for four years. This year they decided to put the team on their backs and lead us back to Murfreesboro."

Chester County ends the season at 17-7. Knoxville Catholic moves on to play Chattanooga Christian on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in the semifinals.

The spark for Knoxville Catholic's offense was an unlucky moment for the Eaglettes. With 24:58 remaining in the first half, a Chester County defender passed the ball back toward the goalkeeper after a goal kick, and the ball rolled into the goal to give the Lady Irish the 1-0 lead.

"It was an accident and unlucky for them," Knoxville Catholic coach Mark Leader said. "But we were down there, and it was just a matter of time before we scored."

From there the offense started flowing as Knoxville Catholic senior Ashley Hickman dribbled in along the endline and scored with 18:36 remaining and senior Natalie Hermes scored off a ball that deflected off of the crossbar.

"It snowballed after the own goal," Judd said. "I thought we did a good job bottling [Hickman] up, allowing her just one goal. Our game plan worked, but we had no possession in the midfield.

"They are a good team. They are experienced on this level. We didn't do anything to help ourselves."

The Lady Irish led 3-0 at halftime after outshooting Chester County 6-1 with shots on goal.

The Eaglettes tried to hang tough in the second half, but Knoxville Catholic scored a fourth goal early in the half before two more came late.

Junior Camille Mancini scored the first two – with 32:09 and 19:40 remaining in the match – before senior Sarah Rouse scored with 14:20 left.

Michael Odom, 425-9754