Tigerettes win big on senior night

The Marshall County Tigerettes could not have picked a better night to break their season-long winless streak as they battered Wayne County 4-1 on senior night in Lewisburg.

"The seniors were a little nervous to start the game, but once they got calmed down, they really led the team to a big win," said MCHS assistant coach Larry Pung.

The Lady Wildcats came to town with the minimum number of players, but for the first twenty minutes of the ballgame, it was a nip and tuck battle on the pitch before Tigerette sophomore Emily Spence hit paydirt to break the ice at the 10:50 mark of the first half.

Senior Stephanie Jaimes began the scoring play with a nice run up the left wing before chipping to Clara Wilson, who fed Spence in front of the goal for the score.

MCHS, spurred by the first goal of the game kept pushing forward, producing several runs towards another score, but could not convert.

The Tigerettes' outstanding keeper Atlanta Ferguson preserved the shutout late in the half when she came out to cut off the angle on Wayne County's Kelsey Risner.

Ferguson perfectly timed the sliding tackle to knock the ball away from Risner and out of bounds.

The first half ended with the Tigerettes still holding a one goal to nil advantage.

After the halftime senior night festivities, Marshall County took the pitch with a fervor and just three minutes into the second half, Payton Gevedon sent a beautiful corner kick to the front of the Wayne County net where Wilson was waiting to deposit the silver sphere into the back of the net for a 2-0 MCHS lead.

The majority of the action stayed the Wayne County end, wearing down the depleted Lady Cats and at the 31:42 mark, Gevedon sent a low ball corner kick directly to the foot of senior Devin Jouett.

Jouett drilled the Gevedon pass into the cords and the jubilation was on for the Tigerettes as the held an insurmountable 3-0 lead with 31:42 remaining in the contest.

The ball barely left the Wayne County end as the tired Lady Cats tried to hold on.

After several good attempts for a goal by senior Laura Spence, Jouett scored again with just under twenty minutes left.

The final MCHS tally was started with a hustle play by senior Natalie Wiles' clearing kick that ended up on the foot of Maria Castellano, who passed to Monica Lee, who in turn fed Jouett for the score.

The only thing left for the Tigerettes was to preserve the shutout and once again, Ferguson came out for a sliding save with twelve minutes remaining in the game.

MCHS head coach Lisa Raffo was subbing liberally throughout the final twenty minutes, and with the game in extra time, Wayne County's Reagan Skelton broke free in the box and scored past a sliding Ferguson.

Both players were injured on the rough and tumble play, but they both got up after several minutes and continued to play.

MCHS played their last regular season game at Cascade on Wednesday and they will prepare for a district tournament play-in game versus Cornersville or Huntland at a time yet undermined at press time.

After the play-in contest, the remainder of the district tournament begins on Oct. 14.