MARYVILLE – Maryville opened defense of its Collegiate Conference of the South regular season championship here Sunday showing no signs of relinquishing the crown.
The Scots smashed Belhaven 4-1 behind four different Maryville goal-scorers. Three of those tallies came during a 16-minute first-half showcase that no doubt shocked the visitors, who were hoping to turn the tables on last year's 1-0 home defeat.
That late-season match decided the regular season title and handed Maryville home field advantage in the playoffs, which the Scots parlayed into a CCS tournament title to make it a sweep of the conference hardware.
Sierra Lee scored her fifth goal of the season to tie for the league lead.
Ellie Schuld powered in her second goal of the year and both
Sadie Phelan and
Anne Marie Konieczny scored for the first time in 2024. Belhaven pulled one back when Jenny Satcher scored late for the Blazers.
Maryville head coach
Pepe Fernandez said that while his team was exceptional at times, there is still room for improvement.
"I actually thought we could have played a little better," Fernandez said. "There were a couple of moments when we did not possess the ball like we have talked about. But they played well.
"I would not have known the game would go the way it did as far as the way we scored. We scored on two set plays, and we have been good on those. Their keeper is one of the tallest in the conference, and for us to pick up a pair of goals on corners was very impressive."
Cornering the Market
Maryville's second corner kick of the match resulted in its first goal in the 28th minute.
Katie Corley took the corner and lofted the ball right onto the doorstep, where Schuld was able to nudge it forward past the Belhaven keeper for a 1-0 lead.
Six minutes later, Maryville scored a second when another corner kick found the boot of Anabelle Proctor. Her shot attempt was blocked but it went right to Lee, who did not miss from 12 yards away into the right corner netting. It was 2-0 Scots in the 34th minute.
Maryville grabbed a third before halftime, this time starting with a
Chloe Chase steal. Chase passed back to Schuld and she fed Phelan, who fired low and hard into the left corner from 18 yards away.
Early in the second half, Konieczny collected her own initially saved shot attempt and fired a second shot into the right corner netting from 8 yards out in the 55th minute. The Scots led 4-0.
Belhaven got one back in the 83rd minute when Jenny Satcher volleyed home from 20 yards away after a long centering pass from teammate Lexi Green.
The Scots finished with a 15-12 edge in shots and a 6-1 margin in corners.
Sydney Mahr made five saves for Maryville.
4-1 Win vs. Good Team
"The second half we let the air out of it a little bit," Fernandez said. "But you get the 4-1 win against a good team, you take it and go. A 4-1 result is good."
Maryville is riding a six-match unbeaten streak, during which the Scots are 4-0-2. MC improved to 4-1-4 overall and 1-0-0 in conference, while Belhaven is now 5-3-0 and 0-1-0.
The Scots stay in CCS play Wednesday night at home against Covenant, which stands 6-2-0 overall and 2-0-0 in the CCS. Maryville defeated Covenant 2-1 in overtime at home last year to win the CCS tournament championship after the teams drew 1-1 at Covenant during the regular season.
The Scots own a 15-4-1 series lead against their rivals from Lookout Mountain.
Start time Wednesday is 7 p.m.
