Late goals cost Lady Hornets in state final
HUNTSVILLE — The Lady Hornets controlled play for much of the Class 6A girls soccer state championship game on Saturday morning, but two goals in the span of 73 seconds cost the Chelsea High School girls soccer team.
Homewood knocked off Chelsea 3-2 at John Hunt Park, denying the Lady Hornets a chance at their second state title in three years.
“It’s not the outcome we wanted, but there’s a lot of schools that would trade places where we are,” said Chelsea head coach Jonathan Hammett. “Hats off to Homewood and them, they played a great game.”
Chelsea took a 2-1 lead with 18 minutes to play, as Morgan Bright converted a penalty kick.
But with roughly 10 minutes remaining, Homewood’s Eleanor Kyle scored to tie it. Then Claire Touliatos scored just over a minute later to turn the Lady Patriots' deficit into a lead.
Chelsea had a couple solid chances to extend the lead, but Homewood goalkeeper Jada Repp made two critical saves to keep the Lady Hornets at bay and set the stage for Homewood’s winning surge.
“Jada played a phenomenal game in goal for them and made some crazy saves,” Hammett said. “Normally, in most games, those are going in. Jada’s been a good keeper for them for a lot of years. They played a great game and we just came up short today.”
Homewood scored the game’s first goal 14 minutes in, as Maggie O’Hare put one in the back of the net off an Audrey Nabors assist. That goal stood for seven minutes, before Kailey Littleford made a run down the right side and beat Repp for the tying goal.
Once Chelsea took the 2-1 lead on Bright’s goal, Homewood found a way to turn the tide of a game.
“It was a game of ups and downs,” said Mindy McBride, Homewood’s head coach. “There were turns between who was taking control of the game; we did it a little bit, they did it a little bit.”
Chelsea advanced to the state final with an 8-0 win over St. Paul’s on Friday in the semifinals, as Haley Duca and Littleford each posted hat tricks. Homewood defeated Decatur 8-0 in the semifinals.
“We had a lot of records broken this year, but they would trade all that for winning a state championship,” Hammett said. “But again, hats off to Homewood. They played a good game.”
The Lady Hornets finished with a record 21-3-1 on the year and graduate five seniors in Claire Guillen, Lexie Duca, Carson Reeves, Megan Hurley and Raegan Bailey.
“They’re a special group,” Hammett said of the seniors. “They’ve had an impact since their freshman year. We were moments away from advancing into the state tournament their freshman year and then we made it their sophomore year and senior year. That’s a great run for a senior class for any group.”