Greene nets hat trick as Hornets advance to final
HUNTSVILLE — It took a little while for the barrage of shots by the Chelsea High School girls soccer team to produce results. But once forward Haley Greene wore down the Northview defense, the goals came in bunches.
Greene scored a hat trick as her Hornets squad shut out Northview 5-0 in the AHSAA Class 6A state semifinals Friday, which gives them a berth in the championship match Saturday morning.
Chelsea dominated the first half in terms of possession and shots on goal, but had nothing to show for it on the scoreboard until Greene finally found the back of the net with a strike two minutes before halftime.
“Northview likes to pack it and grind out the game, and that’s exactly what they were doing,” Chelsea coach Jonathan Hammett said. “We were taking shots from distance, and got away from what we like to do. They played their kind of game, and we didn’t do a good job adjusting. Then Haley snapped off a shot from inside a crowd that I don’t think their keeper even saw.”
After intermission, Greene struck again in the 47th minute, in what would be the first goal in a second-half onslaught. Nine minutes later, Claire Guillen scored the Hornets’ third goal.
Greene completed the hat trick with a score in the 61st minute, followed by the clincher from Mary Connor Smith in the 71st, on a ball that slipped through the Northview keeper’s gloves and legs.
“Once we went up by two goals, Northview had to adjust to stay within reach, and that opened things up for us, and we got our midfielders involved, and that really freed us up,” Hammett said.
The Hornets stats crew credited goalkeeper Sabrina Lang with two saves. Lang got her fingertips on a Northview free kick taken just outside the penalty area in the second half; the ball then banged off the crossbar. That set piece, along with another free kick from the other side of the box, were the only two real threats that Lang saw all morning.
Northview keeper Adrianna Wright tallied 18 saves.
The win sets up a championship matchup with Southside, which blanked Pell City 7-0 in the other semifinal.
“Southside is a big, physical team that has some speed. We’re not very tall or big, so that’s a bit concerning,” Hammett said. “They have a couple of really good forwards. We didn’t see them at all this year.”
The title game kicks off at 10 a.m. Saturday at Huntsville’s John Hunt Park. A victory would give Chelsea (16-6-1) its second state championship; they won the Class 5A crown in 2012.