by Rusty Ellis
The Cookeville Lady Cavs put together an electric defensive performance in their 1-0 win over Lebanon in the District 7-3A Quarterfinals.
Carmen Sandoval recorded the lone score of the game in the 13th minute, as the Lady Cavs’ defense held that lead up for the remaining 67 minutes to clinch the victory.
“It feels great, you spend days working up to a game and when the whistle blows, you see who shows up,” said CHS head coach Lauren Metts. “They fought from the very first whistle and didn’t take a play off and it took that…it took us digging deep.”
There was a five-minute stretch in the second half where Lebanon controlled the ball at their end of the field and put together multiple scoring chances. Thanks to improved stepping in Metts’ words, the Lady Cavs managed to get out of that stretch unscathed.
“We struggled a bit more at the beginning of the season with stepping,” Metts said. “I thought they did a really good job figuring out stepping, and also stepping to press and covering behind it…I thought we did a fantastic job at covering each other.”
Now Cookeville will have a quick turnaround tomorrow, as they will travel to Wilson Central to play for a spot in the district championship.
And Metts knows it’ll take a similar effort and then some for the Lady Cavs to advance further.
“I hope we’ve got enough, I’m confident because the girls at getting themselves prepped,” Metts said. “The last time we played them, we won 1-0 and it took every ounce of energy we had and we had days to prepare for that one. It’s going to be a tough one, but we can do it.”
