The Fannin County Lady Rebels soccer team’s season came to an end at Lamar County May 5 in the Elite 8 state playoff round. The Lady Rebels lost the tough and aggressive game 4-0.
“I thought we were evenly matched. I felt like it was a competitive game. We had a lot of possession, but they were able to monopolize on the times that they had the ball on our half of the field,” Head Coach Nancy Jessen said.
The score was 1-0 at halftime, Lamar’s goal coming from a corner kick.
Lamar’s first goal was impressive. “They kind of took us off guard. We knew that they had some players that we needed to mark up on and really pay attention to,” Jessen said. She added the Lady Rebels "didn't let the girl turn right and didn't have a face on direct shot. She did kind of like a bicycle kick and scored the goal.” A bicycle kick is when a player is receiving a kick and flips backwards and kicks it over the head into the goal.
Lamar scored three additional goals in the second half. The second goal was a penalty kick.
“We had the ball and we had lots of shots, we just couldn't quite find the net,” Jessen said.
Fannin had runs at the goal. Junior Albany Cole had four shots on goal while Sophomore Marinn Denton had two shots on goal. Junior Annaleigh Cheatham had three.
Goalkeeper Bridgett Allen had 15 saves. “She was busier than she had that other games. She did a very good job,” Jessen said.
The Lady Rebels finish the season at 14-4 and 7-0 in the region. They were the region 1A D-I Region 7 champions.