The Hahnville Lady Tigers hosted Comeaux in the first round of the soccer playoffs, but fell in sudden death 0-1.
Hahnville was ranked 14th in the state and finished in second place in District 6, while the Lady Spartans were ranked 19th and finished second in District 3.
After winning the coin toss, the confident Lady Tigers took the field and demonstrated good ball movement and excellent defense. The Lady Spartans’ strategy was to push the ball up the field and try to score early and finish the game with dominant defense.
Early on, the Lady Tigers found themselves being behind 0 shots on goal to the Lady Spartans’ 5 shots on goal mid-way through the first half.
But at the 17-minute mark, Jessica St. Pierre just missed the goal.
At 15:30 left, Annie Kinler miscued on a wide-open shot, and with 11:40 left Kinler set-up a corner kick to St. Pierre, who barely missed a headshot in front of the goal.
With the half winding down, Grayson Touchard broke free and went one-on-one with the goalie and pushed the ball just right of the goal.
Both teams went into halftime tied at 0-0.
The Lady Spartans again came out in the second half with a very fast style of play and kept the ball on their offensive side of the field. The Lady Tigers quickly found themselves down 7-2 on shots on goal.
“Courtney Blanchard, of Comeaux High School, was a very dominant and strong kicker for the Lady Spartans,” Hahnville head coach Shaun Crochet said. “She was not scared to try a shot from 30 yards out.”
As the game went on, the Lady Tigers turned up their offensive pressure, managing to clear the ball to midfield, then passing to the wings for a give-and-go.
On several opportunities, the Tigers had chances to score in the second half. At the 33-minute mark, Kinler had a direct kick from 31 yards out and almost delivered a goal. With 11:45 minutes left, Kinler was set-up by St.Pierre on a give-and-go and sailed the ball just over the top of the goal.
The last good attempt came with 6:50 left. St. Pierre had a shot on goal and missed to the left side of the net.
With neither team managing to score in regulation or overtime, the game went into a shootout.
Hahnville won the toss and elected to shoot second, and each team made four shots in the shootout to send the game to sudden death.
In sudden death, a winner is declared whenever a team makes a shot and the other team misses one.
After no score in the first round, Comeaux’s Tori Burger sailed one to the back of the net. Hahnville’s Touchard then had to make a shot to keep her team alive, but it was blocked on an impressive play by Comeaux’s goalie.
Comeaux now advances to take on Mandeville.
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