BELLBROOK — Lehman Catholic soccer opponents beware. Success against the Cavaliers in the regular season is not a recipe for success against them in the tournament.
As West Liberty-Salem found out the hard way Saturday night.
For the second straight year, Lehman defeated an opponent it had lost to during the season in a Division III district final, winning the school’s fourth district title and third under coach Jeremy Lorenzo with a 3-1 victory over the Tigers.
A year ago, Lehman defeated Anna in the district finals after losing to the Rockets in the regular season.
Lehman improves to 13-4-1 with the win and will play Cincinnati Madeira on Tuesday at Centerville High School.
“It is tough to get up for every opponent during the season,” Lorenzo said. “The tournament allows you to do that and be focused for that opponent. I think the girls do step up at tournament time.”
The first half was scoreless.
“It was a well-played, hard fought game with two good teams in the first half,” Lorenzo said.
In the second half, Lehman sophomore Lindsey Magoteaux caught fire, scoring all three goals with two assists by Grace Olding and one by Carly Edwards.
“Lindsey (Magoteaux) was phenomenal tonight,” Lorenzo said. “None of the goals were gimme goals. They were all great shots by Lindsey. Everybody stepped up tonight.”
Magoteaux opened the scoring with 30:04 remaining in the game on an assist by Grace Olding.
“She was just inside the 18,” Lorenzo said. “She just kind of bent it around the goalie to the left.”
But, WL-S wasn’t going away.
Gabby Hollar struck from 40 yards out with 18:06 remaining to tie the game.
“Gabby Hollar just made an amazing shot,” Lorenzo said. “There is a reason why she has been the Miami Valley Player of the Year the last three years. We were just trying to find a way to keep her from scoring. We were man marking her. That tells you just how good she is.”
But, Magoteaux was not going to be denied.
She scored with 11:24 to go off an Olding assist and then scored again off of Carly Edwards assist with 8:38 remaining. After that, it was just a matter of keeping West Liberty off the board.
“We were just trying to do everything we could the rest of the way to keep them from scoring,” Lorenzo said. “West Liberty-Salem was being really aggressive and attacking.”
Lehman had 12 shots on goal to WL-S’s seven and Hannah Giguere had seven saves in goal.
Now comes a matchup with Madeira, who defeated Milton-Union 2-1 in overtime Saturday.
“We normally play them, but we didn’t play them this year,” Lorenzo said. “It should be a good game. It should be a lot of fun.”
With Lehman looking for another big win to continue down the tournament trail.
Anna 3, Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy 0
Anna won its first district title in program history on Saturday in Beavercreek with a dominating performance against Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy. The Rockets scored two goals in the last 10 minutes to clinch the victory.
The Rockets (17-0-2) advance to face Cincinnati Country Day in a regional semifinal on Tuesday in Beavercreek. Country Day (16-2-0) beat Preble Shawnee 7-0 in a district final on Saturday.
Taylor Kauffman scored a goal off an assist by Ella Dosek to put Anna up 10-0 at halftime. Taylor Noll then scored a goal with 4:30 left and 52 seconds left to help the Rockets put it away.
