West Jessamine ends Danville’s season in region semifinal

Published 9:40 am Thursday, October 20, 2016

By DOUG EADS

COMMONWEALTH JOURNAL

SOMERSET — The West Jessamine and Boyle County have seemingly been headed on yet another collision course for a regional championship all season long.

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In Wednesday night’s first region semifinal match at Southwestern, the Colts certainly did their part by getting past a very good Danville squad in a 3-0 win.

West Jessamine’s Eva Mitchell tallied two goals — including her first just before halftime to give the Colts a 1-0 advantage at the break — and Kevin Wright’s club rode that late score in the first period to a victory over the Admirals, ending Danville’s season with a 13-7-1 record.

“They (Danville) play a much different style that we play,” Wright said. “They play with a lot more pace, a lot more balls in the air, and they try to knock you out with every ball, and we just continue to play our game.

“We knew that Grace (Gaffney) — their goalkeeper — was so strong and solid, we knew we had to use the corners and the back angles and crosses.”

Neither club could find the back of the net early, as this one remained a scoreless affair until late in the opening half of play. With less than two minutes left in the opening frame, it was Mitchell scoring her initial goal of the contest, giving the Colts a 1-0 lead at the intermission.

That late goal seemed to give West Jessamine all the momentum it needed.

Early in the second period, Mitchell scored again — this time on a penalty kick — with just over 36 minutes remaining in the contest for a 2-0 West Jessamine lead.

Less than three minutes later, West Jessamine all but put this one away, thanks to a score by Morgan Pence, that gave the Colts a 3-0 lead at that juncture.

With 33:52 remaining in the game and down by a 3-0 margin, Danville was in big time trouble.

“They (West Jessamine) are an excellent team, and we got a little fatigued, and it showed in that final minute of the first half,” Danville coach J.D. Smith said. “We came out there and give up a penalty kick to them very early in the second half, but even when we were down there, I was happy with our response at that time. We didn’t drop our heads, but we kept fighting and I’m very proud of my team, because they kept battling until the end.”