Published: October 02, 2008 11:35 pm      

Ladycats trip Russell, 2-1

ASHLAND — Ashland’s girls soccer team made it a regular-season sweep over rival Russell on Thursday night.

The Ladycats defeated the Lady Devils 2-1 at the Ashland soccer complex.

“They brought it to us at the end of the game,” said Ashland coach E.B. Lowman. “It’s always a good game with us and Russell.”

Goals from Mary Adkins and Chelsea Dietrich had staked Ashland to a 2-0 lead. It looked like the advantage was going to 3-0 on Kerri Prichard’s goal but it was called back for offsides with 12 minutes remaining.

Two minutes later, Paige Vanover scored for the Lady Devils to make it 2-1.

“Our girls kind of went ‘Whoa!’ after that goal was called back,” Lowman said. “We went from looking like we were going to be up 3-0 to only being up 2-1.”

The momentum seemed to stay with Russell, although shots were hard to come by against a tough and speedy Ashland defense. The Ladycats outshot Russell 8-4.

“There wasn’t a lot of shooting going on,” Lowman said. “They (Russell) worked really hard tonight and challenge for every ball.”

Ashland improved to 11-4-1 and closes the regular season at home against Huntington High Tuesday on Senior Night.

The Ladycats defeated Russell 3-0 earlier in the season. The sweep brought a smile to Lowman’s face. “They’ve been punching our ticket the last few years,” he said. “In the ‘90s we were the team. In the 2000s, they’ve been the team.”

Lowman said it’s probably not the last Ashland will see of Russell.

“They’ll get a do-over,” he said.

Boys

ASHLAND Russell defeated Ashland 2-1 in a hard-fought boys game Tuesday night.Corey Barker scored on a penalty kick with 10 minutes left in the first half to give the Red Devils a 1-0 lead. In the second half, a goal from T.J. Sloan put Russell ahead 2-0.

The Tomcats scored with 15 minutes remaining on a penalty kick by Aaron Wheeler.

Ashland fell to 10-5-1 while Russell improved to 10-2-1 with its second victory over the Tomcats.