Murphy – In their first meeting of the season, in-county rivals Murphy and Tri-County Early College women’s soccer faced off.
The two teams met for the first time this season Thursday night on David Gentry Field at Bob Hendrix Stadium, their shared home pitch.
The Lady Dogs came out on top with a 9-0 win. Murphy reached the nine-goal mark with 6:31 left in the match, ending it after playing almost 74 minutes. Murphy scored their first goal just under nine minutes into the match, when Brooklyn Johnson got the scoring started on a cross.
With 18:28 left in the first half, Halie Hill scored her first goal of the match from the top of the box to make it 2-0 Murphy. Just under five minutes later, Deserae Zenobi was the third Lady Bulldog goal scorer to make it 3-0.
With 11:28 left in the first half, Tri-County had their first shot on goal in the match.
With 9:25 left, Leah Beebe scored on a breakaway to give the Lady Dogs a 4-0 lead at halftime.
Coming out of halftime, the Lady Dogs put their pedal to the metal in the second half.
Hill scored her second goal of the match less than three minutes in to give the Dogs a 5-0 lead. About three minutes later, Zenobi scored her second of the match to make it 6-0. Then less than a minute later, Hill notched her hat-trick goal to give the Dogs a 7-0 lead, only needing two more goals to end the match.
Hill scored her fourth goal of the match with 25:19 remaining in the second half to give the Dogs a 8-0 lead.
With 6:31 left, Kaydence Walton scored her first goal of the season – the game-ending goal – to give the Lady Dogs the 9-0 win after about 74 minutes of play.
Johnson had three assists Thursday against Tri-County. Ella Ledford and Zenobi had two assists each, and Hill and Beebe had one assist each.
Isabel Parker had nine steals, Walton had eight, Zenobi had seven and Tina Bui and Addison Peterson had six each.
Ella Howard earned a clean sheet and made one save on Tri-County’s lone shot on goal.
The day before the Lady Dogs took on the Jaguars, they hosted Cherokee for their second meeting of the season. The Lady Dogs got the 6-0 win for their second consecutive shutout victory.
It was another multi-goal game for Hill, as she had a hat trick against the Lady Braves. Also scoring for the Lady Dogs were Leah Beebe with two and Isabel Parker with one.
Notching assists on their goals were Ella Ledford, Deserae Zenobi, Brooklyn Johnson, Kaydence Walton and Beebe with one each.
Ella Howard earned another clean sheet as she saved the two Lady Braves shots on goal.
Parker led the team in steals with 15. Also in double-digit steals was Walton with 12.
Upon their return from spring break, Murphy and Tri-County will face off again at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 16.