Special to the Maroon Devils Network – The Swain High Lady Devils soccer team had an exciting night on Monday night as they traveled to Hayesville for a conference match up. Going into the game Swain was tied for first place with Murphy in the conference. If Swain and Murphy won on Monday night they would have to play a tiebreaker. Murphy played against Highlands who Swain narrowly beat last week 2-1. Ten and a half minutes into the game Senior Kyndall Cochran would find the back of the net off a pass from Junior Dhruti Senghani. It would be 18 minutes later before the Lady Devils would score again off a pass from Sophomore Isabelle Green to Cochran. The score would be 2-0 going into halftime.
In the second half Hayesville would score early in the second half making the score 2-1. The game would stay a tight game for the first 24 minutes of the second half until Swain started scoring again. With 16 minutes left in the game Senior Jessie Richards would find the back of the net off a pass from Cochran bringing the score to 3-1. 5 minutes later Cochran would score once again. Two minutes after that Cochran would score her 4th goal of the game off a pass from Green. With 2 and a half minutes left in the game Green would add to the scoring off a pass from Cochran. 30 seconds later Senior Aliyah Bigmeat would score the final goal bringing the score to 7-1.
On defense, Sophomore Bri Ross would lead the way with 32 clears/steals. Sophomore Kate Poss added 26, followed by Junior Peyton Hines with 21 and Junior Rebecca Duncan with 19. “We had a really slow start and Hayesville gave us a scare early in the second half.” said Head Coach Scott Cline. “Late in the second half we came back strong and ready to play.”
The player of the game for the Lady Devils was Junior Peyton Hines. “Peyton really stepped it up on defense and pushing up to connect with the offense also.” said Cline.
The Lady Devils improve to 16-3 overall and 11-1 in the Smoky Mountain Conference. After the game the Lady Devils found out that Highlands beat Murphy 6-0 securing the Smoky Mountain Conference Championship for the Lady Devils. It would be the first conference championship for the Lady Devils Soccer team.
In the game Cochran scored her 43rd goal of the season and is currently sitting at 2nd in the state at the 1A level in goals scored. Isabelle Green had her 27th assist of the season and sits at 1st place in the state at the 1A level. Currently the Lady Devils are ranked 16th in the state and await playoff seeding on Monday.