Steven Wright | Greene County News
Legacy Christian sophomore Aubriana Woods (17) celebrates with teammates after scoring her second goal of the season. It turned out to be the game-winner in a 3-1 victory against Lynchburg Clay on Monday at Munoz Field at Athletes in Action.
XENIA — Legacy Christian wasted no time getting back to its winning ways following its first defeat of the season.
The Knights scored less than five minutes into Monday’s home match against Lynchburg-Clay and prevailed 3-1 at Munoz Field at Athletes in Action.
LCA began the season winning its first eight matches as it outscored opponents by a combined 58-3 in those wins. A non-league match against another unbeaten team, Greenon, ended as the team’s first loss on Thursday with a 5-3 score.
Mallory Snyder found the net early in Monday’s contest to quickly put LCA ahead and Lynchburg-Clay on its heels. As the Mustangs began to push its attack, the Knights wasted little time in setting up its counter attack.
Roughly 10 minutes after the opening goal, Aubriana Woods chased down a long struck ball down the right sideline and sent a shot across the net from near the corner of the 18-year box to double the lead.
Both sides continued their strategies and as halftime neared, a throw-in near LCA’s defensive box lead to a scramble near the post in which the ball bounced its way off defenders and into the net to make the score 2-1.
Rain began to fall after the break to help negate some of the speed advantage held by the backline for the Mustangs. It ended up not mattering much for LCA to score its third.
Finding open passes until the ball made its way to the top of the arc above the 18-yard box, Ava Combs had plenty of open space around her to set up a long shot. She fired a curving ball which was well executed into the opper right corner of the net and far out of reach of the Mustangs’ goalkeeper to put LCA (9-1-0) back ahead by two and secure the final scoring margin.
Autumn Allport was solid in net and quick getting to corral loose balls, ending the match with 11 saves.
Both teams were ranked inside the top-25 of MaxPrep’s state rankings for Division V teams, with LCA fourth and Lynchburg-Clay (6-3-1) being 22nd coming into the match.
The Knights next play at Newton on Thursday before returning home to host undefeated Greeneview on Saturday. Greeneview entered the week ranked fifth in the state in the MaxPrep D-V rankings.
Contact Steven Wright at 937-502-4498 and follow on Twitter (@Steven_Wright_).
