By Michael Lindsay
The Stone Memorial Lady Panthers improved to 2-0 in District 7AA Thursday night as they ran away with an 8-0 victory over the White County Warriorettes.
“It feels good to be 2-0 in district play,” said Stone Memorial head coach Tyler Rutherford. “We’ve got a lot of things we can work on going forward, but it feels like we’re in a pretty good place right now.”
Lady Panther forward Emma Thompson posted four goals in the victory to lead the Lady Panthers.
“We had great play in the midfield from Shelby Vitous and Peyton McGinnis,” Rutherford said. “Emma Thompson and Aubrey played awesome up top. I don’t think we can ask for more as far as effort.”
Thompson opened the contest with a goal with 17 minutes remaining in the first half to give Stone Memorial a 1-0 advantage.
Vitous tacked on to the lead 6 minutes later to give the Lady Panthers a 2-0 halftime lead.
Stone Memorial put the game out of reach early in the second half as they scored 4 goals in 3 minutes to take a 6-0 lead. Three of the four goals came from Thompson while Aubrey Murray scored the fourth.
Alina Thompson and Casey Hepburn got on the scoreboard in the in the 53rd and 66th minutes with goals for Stone Memorial to make the final score 8-0.
Stone Memorial keepers Brittany Harbin and Eva Worsham combined for the shutout of White County.
“It’s good for our keepers; we’ve got two who are very new to the experience,” Rutherford said. “It helps them with their confidence and we’ve got a pretty veteran back line.”
Up next for the Lady Panthers is a trip to the Smoky Mountain Cup.
“We’re going into a tournament in Gatlinburg this weekend where we’ll see some pretty high-quality teams,” Rutherford said. “That will give us a pretty good idea of where we shake out in the grand scheme of things.”
