Hayesville – The Murphy women’s soccer team got their fourth straight win Thursday, when they mercy-ruled Hayesville early in the second half.
In the 9-0 victory, senior Lailee Holloway and freshman Haile Hill had hat tricks for Murphy (11-3). Meanwhile, Shyla Serrano-Coleman and Leah Beebe had their first career goals in the match.
As the sun beat down on the turf field in Hayesville (1-8), the whistle blew for the match that would only last just under 50 minutes instead of the usual 80-minute match. Isabel Parker got the scoring going just under five minutes into the match when she made a shot from distance after a corner kick.
Four minutes later, Holloway, the Smoky Mountain Conference’s leading scorer, scored her first goal of the match. Two minutes later, Murphy perfectly executed a play from a corner kick that led to Shyla Serrano-Coleman’s first career goal.
After 10 minutes of Murphy controlling possession, Hill got her first goal of the match off a rebound. Murphy led the match 4-0 at about the halfway point of the first half, and they didn’t plan on slowing down. With 15:59 left in the first half, Holloway got her second goal of the match. 28 seconds later, Leah Beebe scored her first career goal on an odd man rush.
Her excitement showed how much scoring her first goal meant to her. A little under four minutes later, Hill scored her second goal of the match. The Lady Bulldogs scored their final goal of the first half with 7:20 remaining, when Hill got her hat trick goal as the ball slipped through the hands of the goalkeeper.
A little less than 10 minutes into the second half, Holloway got her hat trick goal to make it 9-0 to earn the mercy-rule win. Murphy dominated the match by controlling possession and getting lots of shots. The match was almost completely spent with Murphy attacking the Lady Jackets’ goal.
Lady Bulldogs head coach Kim Brownlee said, “They played great. They were excited about playing here tonight. They love playing on the turf, the ball moves really fast. It fits their style a little bit.
“We were pretty pumped up and ready to go. We’ve been working really hard on all our players’ scoring, getting it more spread across the attacking line. We’ve had some games were we’ve been able to really work it, and tonight was another one of those types of games. We hope we can carry that into those harder games.”
Brownlee discussed the two big games coming up against Swain County and Highlands to wrap up the season.
“We’re in a situation where we kind of have to win if we want to move up. We’re working to move up and working to have them move down. I think the pressure is a little more on them than it is us because we can’t go down,” she said.
“We’re locked into third right now. I think in some ways, maybe we’ll have a little less stress on us because we’re going to play our
game, and maybe we’ll play up to them and put some goals in.”
Brownlee said they will specifically work on switching the field in order to combat Swain and Highlands’ defense. She worked with midfielders to move the ball around.
Earlier in the week, Murphy traveled to Cashiers to take on Blue Ridge Early College (0-10). The Lady Bulldogs won 5-0 in their third straight win.
Holloway led the team with four goals, two in each half. Her four goals were the first four of the match. The fifth goal was scored by Hill. Brooklyn Johnson and Kaydence Walton had one assist each. Isabel Parker led the team in steal with 13, while five players had double digit steals. Breeze Hinton and Tyra Nelson had 11 assists each. Walton, Holloway and Faith Lescalleet had 10 assists each.
Goalkeeper duties were split between Emma Ledford and Serrano-Coleman, who played a half each. Ledford made one save on one shot on goal, while Serrano-Coleman didn’t face any shots on goal.
At press time Tuesday, the Lady Bulldogs sit third with a conference record of 8-2 and have the best goal differential of +43. Heading into the final games of the season, the top three teams in the conference are separated by less than one game.
Murphy’s next game is at home Thursday at Swain County. Kickoff is at 6 p.m.