Lady Cougars End Streak

Lady Cougar Soccer Ends Streak
By David Gravely

Four years is a long time to wait for something, but that wait is finally over for the Pulaski County Lady Cougar Soccer team.  On Tuesday the Lady Cougars defeated the Galax Maroon Tide 3-0, giving the program their first win in four long seasons.

"We've told the girls all season that we are less worried about the outcome of the games and more worried about continuing to make progress" said first year Head Coach Eric Martin.  "We know we have a long way to go to reach the goals we've set and to get to the level we want to be at, but this was certainly a step in the right direction.   Galax has a solid team with some good wins to their credit.  This is just really big for us.  I'm really proud of our progress and happy for our two seniors, who have put so much work and time into this program."

Galax, who is now 6-2-1 on the season, has wins over Giles twice, Bland, Floyd, Rural Retreat, and Carroll County.  Their losses came to George Wythe in a 2-1 nail biter, and now to Pulaski County, who also provided them with the tie game on their record just a few short weeks ago in Galax.

The game started off with both teams moving the ball but unable to penetrate each others defense enough to get into a scoring position.  As the time ticked off the clock in the first half, the Lady Cougars were able to press the ball deeper into Galax territory.  With around ten minutes left in the half Pulaski finally got on the board when Hannah Wade sent a pass to Ericka Nash, who beat the Galax goalie for the score.  Just prior to the end of the first half, Kelly Russell moved the ball deep into enemy territory and passed off to Nash again, who nailed the shot for her second goal of the game.  The half ended with Pulaski up 2-0.

Pulaski came out in the second half and continued to work, moving the ball well and putting shots on goal.  With around 15 minutes off the clock, Casey Snider sent a pass to  Lauren McPeake who was open near the goal, who sent the ball into the back of the net to increase the lead to 3-0.  Pulaski continued to push the ball, and missed a chance at a fourth goal in a scramble with a loose ball near the end of the game, but the Galax goal keeper was able to grab the ball and prevent the score.   Tori Duncan posted her first shutout of the season, and ended the game with three saves.

"I'm so glad this happened this season" said senior defensive player Marlena Morrison.  "I've been playing with this team my entire time in high school, and we've been close several times, but to finally win is great.  We know it's only one game, but it's proof to us that we're making progress.  That's all we want to do right now.....just try to get better every game."

Nash, one of the many underclassmen on the team, thinks the program is certainly headed in the right direction.  "We know we're not the best team in the district, and most of the teams are way ahead of us.  We're working on catching up, but it's going to take time.  Alot of us are playing in summer leagues and on travel teams now, and there are alot of us playing on indoor teams in the winter.  We're trying to do the things we need to do to get better, but we know it's going to take time."

Chelsie Testerman was another happy Lady Cougar.  "We're learning more this year, and you can see the improvements we're making.  We want to take this program to a higher level, and we're willing to do the work to get there.  It would be great if we had a place like the YMCA here in Pulaski where we could play indoors locally during the winter, and hopefully something like that will happen soon.  It would help out the boys and the girls teams so much."

Next week the Lady Cougars will go back into River Ridge District action on Tuesday when they travel to Salem.  Junior varsity action is set to get underway at 5:30, with the varsity contest starting at 7 pm.