The D8A-AA District Championship game was Thursday October 15th at Macon County High School. The Lady Owls sporting a record of 14-0-0, were full of nervous excitement as they stepped onto the pitch underneath the lights as they faced Central Magnet out of Murfreesboro whose 2015 record stood at 11-1-2. Both teams seemed to come out strong but no one was able to land a goal right away. Central Magnet was the first to score but the Lady Owls held strong and pushed forward without getting down. Now wasn’t the time to lie down and quit. They had been in the same type of games all season and were known to make a comeback before. The Lady Owls did just that when forward Katy Wright got a break away and chased the ball into the net bringing the score 1-1. This seemed to give a new life to the Owls and happened to be just what they needed in order to keep going. But right before half time, Central Magnet returned the favor when they slipped a goal past our keeper and pulling ahead at 1-2.
At the start of the second half, the Lady Owls seemed to have faces of steel. Pushing harder than they’ve ever pushed before, they stood fast in the mid-field trying to hold Central Magnet back but were unable to keep them from scoring once more and bringing the score up to 1-3. However the Lady Owls did not give up hope or determination. They continued to play their best but alas were not able to score again. I’ve never seen a team play with more heart than I did that night. The game ended with a loss of 1-3 but Smith County Lady Owls brought home a few trophies of their own. Not only did they bring home a 2nd place finalist District Plaque, Coach Bubba Dunbar was named Coach of the Year. There were a string of First Team All-District Players that included: Abby Smith, Abbi Gregory, Savannah Wright and Lena Broyles. The Second Team All-District Players were Katy Wright and Julia Pardue. Our Lady Owl goalkeeper received Goalkeeper of the East District as well. When Coach Dunbar was asked about the game,” We came out and never let up! We played as hard for 80 minutes as a team could play. It just came down to which team was gonna make a mistake and it just happened to be us! We can’t dwell on a loss because we’ve got Regionals to focus on.” The Lady Owls travel to play in the Regional Tournament against Notre Dame Tuesday October 20th in Chattanooga.
