Chelsea Brown clears the ball from her sweeper position against Lawrenceburg. The Rising Sun defense limited the defending sectional champ to one first half goal
The Rising Sun Lady Shiners advanced to the finals of the Class A Sectional 45 before losing 8-1 to defending sectional champ Lawrenceburg on Saturday, October 8th at Rising Sun.
The final score may be what was expected, but it wasn’t a full out blowout like the Lady Tigers’ 9-0 win earlier this season. It was one of five losses for the Shiners – who went unbeaten in the Ohio River Valley Conference at 9-0-1.
The story of the game was Coach Christina Rumsey’s defensive strategy that kept two players up front and packed the rest back on defense. The result was more than 30 shots by the Lady Tigers in the first half including numerous ricochets off the goal post. However no goals.
Sweeper Chelsea Brown settled in on the Shiner 6 yard line and swept the ball out of the goal area numerous times before it could get to keeper Riley Chipman.
It was Rising Sun that got on the board first with a 25 yard free kick by freshman Kinsey Price with 9:17 left in the opening 40 minute half. It was the only shot of the half for the Shiners. Price had scored the winning goal in Rising Sun’s 4-3 tournament opening win over Trinity Lutheran.
Lawrenceburg answered on a direct kick of its own from Hailey Knippenberg with 7:28 left in the half. The game was tied at the half.
Knippenberg used the wind to her advantage to net a second free kick with 36:56 left in the game.
Josie Denton scored off an assist from Holly Nutley at the 35 mark and the Tigers were in total control after Nutley’s shot at the 31:27 made it 4-1.
Knippenberg recorded her three goal hat trick off a corner kick from Jenna Farmer with 25:45 remaining. Farmer scored with 19:40 left with goals by Avery Sieg and Julia Ireland rounding out the scoring.
Rising Sun had advanced to the finals with a 4-0 win over Milan. Sophomore Keira Oser scored a hat trick including goals at the 30:55, 21:29 and 8:35 marks of the first half.
Freshman Sydney Pitts scored at 28:27 on an assist from Price. Kasey Baker and Brown had assists on Oser’s final two shots.
There was no scoring in the second half but there was plenty of excitement with four Shiners injured. Brown was hurt with 22:54 left. Then Morgan Bush had to be carried off with 16:31 left. Jayden McAlister was shaken up with 11:29 on the clock and Chipman went out at the 9:58 mark after a diving save.
Lawrenceburg advanced to the finals with an 8-0 win over Switzerland County despite a strong effort by Pacer keeper Allie Bruce, who recorded 20 saves.
It took 20 minutes before Hannah Miller scored for the Tigers. Alyssa Oyler had the first of two goals followed by a penalty kick by Audrey Schweir. Oyler, Nutley, Allie Terrill and Macy Morgan closed out the scoring.