MARYVILLE – Maryville scored early and scored late – and added a couple in between – to race past nemesis Piedmont 4-0 in the Collegiate Conference of the South Tournament semifinals here on a cold Wednesday night.
The Lions arrived in East Tennessee riding a streak of five consecutive postseason match wins against the Scots. Officially, it was 4-0-1, but that includes last year's inaugural CCS championship tilt that finished 0-0 before Piedmont prevailed on home turf in penalty kicks. And Maryville hadn't scored a goal in any of those matches.
A fast start changed that mojo Wednesday night.
The Scots nearly scored seconds into the match when
Anabelle Procter was the beneficiary of a giveaway in the Piedmont box and blasted a shot off the crossbar.
Maryville kept the pressure on, and
Delaney Muldoon connected in the fifth minute on her fifth of the season. Her arching shot from about 25 yards out found the upper left corner for a 1-0 Scots lead.
"They've had our number the last few years, when we played some really good soccer, but they've been able to dig their heels in and nick a goal or get us on penalty kicks," Maryville head coach
Pepe Fernandez said. "And their side played hard again tonight. But offensively, we were really clicking. It looked like we were going to pick up a couple more goals there early."
Phelan Provides Instant Offense
Maryville's second goal came as the clock approached halftime.
Sadie Phelan subbed in during the 36th minute and scored in the 43rd, finding the upper right corner from straightaway for her eighth of the season.
Katie O'Brien fashioned the nifty assist.
The score went to 3-0 almost immediately after the break. Procter delivered a perfect pass across the goalie box that set up a hard-charging
Avery Brown for a tap-in at the far post in the 48th minute. It was Brown's fourth of the year. To close it out,
Sierra Lee scored her 11th of the season with a left-footer just inside the right post from next to the penalty spot.
Hannah Smoot had the assist in the 87th minute.
"The history is there," Fernandez said. "Timmy McCormack is a great coach and a great friend. It's like most of the coaches in this conference – we all want to beat each other when we play, but we're still good friends. It's a great fraternity of excellent soccer coaches in this league. Timmy did a fantastic job tonight, in the second half in particular, and put his team in some good spaces."
The most recent Scots postseason victory against Piedmont was 2-1 in Demorest way back in 2010 for the Great South Athletic Conference championship.
This night, Maryville outshot Piedmont 25-7 and had an 11-3 advantage in corner kicks. Ball possession favored the Scots 68 percent to 32 percent. Haylee Dornan made six saves for the Lions, while Maryville's
Sophie Turner made two. For Turner, it was her sixth solo shutout of the season and boosted her goalkeeping record to 10-2-3.
1-1 Draw Back in September
Maryville has outscored its CCS foes 54-2 this season, including 12-0 in the postseason. The Scots allowed a penalty kick goal to Covenant in the conference opener back on Sept. 20 and a late goal at home to Huntingdon in an 8-1 victory.
Now 14-3-3, the Scots get a chance to improve upon that 1-1 draw against Covenant when the teams meet in Saturday's championship match. Covenant improved to 8-4-5 after its 1-0 road victory against Belhaven in Wednesday's other semifinal. Piedmont's season finishes at 10-7-5.
Start time Saturday from the MC Soccer Complex is 2 p.m.
