Murphy – The Lady Bulldogs’ girls soccer knew what was on the line Friday afternoon.
Win against Swain County, a team Murphy split two games against this season, and qualify for the N.C. High School Athletic Association 1A playoffs. Lose, and likely be on the outside looking in.
Despite the stakes, Murphy came out flat and fell to Swain County 5-1. When the playoff draw was announced Saturday morning, the Lady Bulldogs missed out, while the Lady Devils were scheduled to play Community School of Davidson on Monday night. Murphy finished the 2021 season 7-4-1 overall, 7-3 in the Smoky Mountain Conference.
“We played tonight just not at our best,” Murphy head coach Kim Brownlee said. “I can’t tell you exactly why.”
After Murphy’s loss to conference champion Highlands on April 28, the Lady Bulldogs finished the regular season tied with Swain for second place. Friday’s game was an elimination game to determine who would finish second in the conference and grab a wild card berth in the playoff.
The Lady Bulldogs were a step slow for much of the game, as the Lady Devils scored four goals in the first 23 minutes.
“They were moving the ball better than us, “ Brownlee said. “We were panicking and rushing the ball and not staying on our feet. We just made a lot of inexperienced mistakes.”
Murphy had no answer for Mazie Helpman, who scored four goals and put pressure on the Lady Bulldogs’ backline.
Helpman put the Lady Devils on the board in the ninth minute, taking advantage of Murphy’s miscommunication on a throw in. The ball was thrown into the middle of the field near the box, passed to the right flank, forcing goalie Torin Rogers to come out and try to make the play. Helpman easily put it past the keeper for a 1-0 lead.
Swain continued to put pressure on Murphy’s defense, and Helpman scored again in the 15th minute, dribbling around a defender before depositing the ball in the left side of the net. Three minutes later, Lady Devils leading scorer Kaylee Simmons was the first to a goal kick and with open room in front of her, put the ball in the back of the net. Helpman added another in the 23rd minute for a first half hat trick.
In the same time that Swain scored four times, Murphy took just three shots, only one of which was on goal. Chloe Decker put the Lady Bulldogs on the board with a free kick in the 35th minute, and though Murphy continued to push for goals, it came up empty.
Their best chances came on corner kicks in the 69th and 75th minute, with the latter being snuffed out by Lady Devils goalie Maddie Lay. One minute later, Helpman scored her fourth goal to put an exclamation point on a great afternoon for Swain.
While the Lady Devils ran off the field in jubilation, the realization that the season was over set in on the Murphy sideline. With 10 new players this year and a limited preseason, Brownlee wished she had more time with this group.
“These kids grow on you,” Brownlee said, holding back tears. “They grow on you, and I look around and I realize that we were just so close, and we needed just a little more time together.”