The Cascade Lady Champions took a stranglehold on the number one seed for the District 9A Tournament with two district games to go after staving off a late Huntland rally and come away with the 3-2 win at home on Tuesday night.

Sophie Ray, Kaylee Martin, and Olivia Winnett all found themselves on the scoresheet for Cascade as the Lady Champs’ lead grew to as large as 3-0 before the Lady Hornets found two goals in the final 20 minutes to raise the heart rate of the hosts. Hazel Reed and Piper Cox found the back of the net for the visitors late in the second half.

The opening 40 minutes was dominated by the Lady Champions, and it only took 13 minutes for Cascade to open the scoring when Sophie Ray pounced on a bouncing ball in the box to poke it home past Hornets’ goalkeeper, Abigail Denton, to take the 1-0 lead. The hosts tacked on just two shots on goal for the rest of the half with the majority of possession being controlled in the midfield third to take the 1-0 lead into halftime.

Huntland started to find their footing going forward in attack once the second half started, forcing a save in the 48th minute from senior goalkeeper, Irais Rojas, to maintain the slim advantage.

However, four minutes later, Cascade worked a brilliant one-two move between the freshmen Lexi Comstock and Kaylee Martin that ended with Martin being put free on goal through the left channel to fire a shot that beat Denton at her near post to double the hosts’ lead at 2-0 in the 52nd minute.

Kaylee Martin (9) scored the Lady Champs' second goal on Tuesday.

Cascade didn’t let up after Martin’s goal, instead they did the opposite. The Lady Champs’ kept up the pressure, with Ray seemingly winning every 50/50 ball in the midfield and helping shut down any Huntland counterattack before it could materialize. This activity led to Olivia Winnett drawing a foul on the very edge of the 18-yard box and within range to take a shot on target with a set piece. 

Winnett lined up and struck the ball beautifully up and over the wall and into the back of the net to give Cascade a seemingly insurmountable 3-0 lead in the 59th minute.

Instead, the Lady Hornets almost immediately responded just two minutes later. Senior star forward Hazel Reed found herself just outside of the right side of Cascade’s box, and she was able to cut back onto her favored left foot and unleash a low strike that beat Rojas on the ground into the back of the net to make it a 3-1 game with just over 19 minutes left to play.

Huntland continued to apply the pressure, but Cascade seemed to have calmed the storm as the clock ticked past the 70th minute mark. Then, seemingly out of nothing, the Lady Hornets improbably found a second goal in the 77th minute mark after Piper Cox was able to ripple the netting past Rojas to make it a 3-2 game with about three minutes to go. 

However, in the end, it would ultimately prove to be too little too late for the visitors, and Cascade held on to win 3-2 and all but clinch the top seed in the upcoming District 9A tournament with two district games left in the regular season.

Huntland falls to 6-3-3 (2-3).

Cascade remains undefeated in district play and improves to 7-2-1 (6-0) and have a full week off to prepare for the return match on the road at Community in the ‘Battle Of Bedford’ on Tuesday, September 24, with kickoff scheduled for 6:00 p.m.