Baylor celebrates its 10th soccer state championship Friday night at CHI Memorial red Wolves Stadium. The Lady Red Raiders shut out Harpeth Hall, 3-0.
photo by Walt Kean
Baylor tasted sweet, sweet glory for the 10th time in program history Friday night, beating Harpeth Hall 3-0 in the DII-AA state soccer championship.
In true Ted Lasso fashion, it was teamwork that cemented this team together and allowed the Red Raiders to win their final game of the year.
Baylor dominated early, with coach Curtis Blair dictating his team’s every movement as it methodically worked the ball wide and then looked for quality service into the box. Senior Jada Cooper, who bagged a brace on her way to earning man of the match accolades, occupied that central space in a manner worthy of being the target point.
One of the many unsung heroes of the Raiders championship run was Elizabeth Stophel. Her creativity on the right wing became the catalyst for Baylor moving forward and providing service for Cooper.
It was this duo that produced the opener in the 12th minute. Stophel, receiving the ball just past the midfield mark, turned on her marker and drove to the line before cutting it back to Cooper for a tap in.
Harpeth Hall were already chasing the game at that point. The Honeybears’ played deep in their own half, almost afraid of trying to press Baylor in possession. One could hardly blame them. The Red Raiders ability to move the ball and work it into space would leave any high pressing loyalist with second thoughts.
Even still, Harpeth Hall were not without chances. Finishing with six shots, the Honeybears star forward Quinn Erim was responsible for five of them. Erim’s game changing pace was the single bright spot going forward for Harpeth Hall. Even if the Red Raiders’ backline gave themselves 10 yards, Erim could still outrun them.
Baylor put in a shift defensively, however, working to slow Erim down and force her to shoot from bad angles resulting in nearly all her chances being off frame. Blair praised his backline’s discipline and focus after the game as one of the key components to Baylor’s triumph.
With 15 minutes left in the half, Baylor doubled its lead as Stophel danced down the wing before feeding senior Sophia Mize at the top of the 18. Mize placed her first touch out in front of her and then drove her shot through a gap and into the bottom right corner.
It was Baylor’s night, and the Red Raiders were ready for it.
The finishing touches were put on in flip side of the second half. Cooper grabbed her second after Baylor recycled a corner, finding Elizabeth Silva unmarked at the back post. Silva calmly brought it down with her chest before cutting by the onrushing defender and slotting it across the six-yard box for Cooper to tuck away.
“That was a great team goal” Blair said after the match, “It shows what our team is made of, we’re not selfish”.
If one were to designate a theme for the Raiders’ 2023 season, “teamwork” would have to be it.
“This game wasn’t won today” Blair stated with a dad-like grin on his face when he talked about this group of girls, “This game was won back in July when we went to Sewanee for our camp, and we started building relationships there… you can tell these girls love each other and they put the team first”.
Cooper echoed her coach when asked about her stud performance. “We’re all selfless” chimed Cooper as her teammates sang her praises during the postgame madness, “we’re just doing things to help each other score… its just our love for each other”.
With this win the Lady Raiders take their 10th state title, and the second with Blair at the helm.
Baylor took a few moments to celebrate at CHI Memorial stadium with its fans and then promptly jumped on the bus and headed back to the base of Signal Mountain to interrupt the home football game and tell them the news—that their girls are the 2023 state champions!
Match Summary:
Baylor 2 1 – 3
Harpeth Hall 0 0 – 0
Goal Scorers:
Baylor- Jada Cooper(2), Sophia Mize