It will be a Donoho-Oxford doubleheader Saturday for county soccer tournament titles
CALHOUN COUNTY SOCCER TOURNAMENT
Thursday’s games
At McClellan
Girls bracket
Donoho 2, Jacksonville 1 (2 OT)
Oxford 2, Weaver 1
Boys bracket
Donoho 3, Jacksonville 0
Oxford 2, White Plains 1
Saturday’s games
Girls bracket
Championship game: Donoho vs. Oxford, 3 p.m. (F3)
Boys bracket
Championship game: Donoho vs. Oxford, 5 p.m. (F3)
Donoho girls soccer coach Jay Jenkins knew during last week’s seeding meeting this year was probably the greatest threat to his team’s dominance in the Calhoun County Soccer Tournament.
Thursday night, the only girls team to ever win the county tournament championship faced their biggest threat yet.
Sam Wakefield came off the back row and scored on a rebound midway through the second overtime to lift the top-seeded Lady Falcons over Jacksonville 2-1 for a trip to Saturday’s title match. The Lady Falcons will play Oxford at 3 p.m.
Actually, the entire championship card is a Donoho-Oxford doubleheader as the two teams play for the boys crown at 5 p.m.
“They played with more desire than we did and it showed,” Jenkins said. “They pushed us to the limit. They played brilliantly.
“We woke up when we got to overtime. I felt like we outplayed them in overtime, but I didn’t feel like we outplayed them the rest of the game. They handled the moment better than we did.”
The Lady Falcons have Wakefield to thank for getting them to the finals. She took a shot after a corner kick that Jacksonville saved, but the ball came right back to her and this time she was true.
They took a 1-0 lead midway through the first half when Zoe Christopher, who probably will miss the title match due to injury, played a great ball into Erin Turley, who beat the defense for the goal.
Jacksonville’s Olivia King tied the game in the first 10 minutes of the second half despite being tightly marked and then it was a battle of the midfield.
All three goals in the match were scored against a stiff wind. [*** read more]
