Westview passes early tournament test

By RANDY CAVIN
Press Sports
Westview girls’ head coach Matt Cupples knew his soccer team had a tough draw in the Lady Chargers’ opening round of the Region 7A-AA soccer tournament, but the Lady Chargers still came out on top with a 3-0 win over Crockett County.
“Our district, the way it is positioned, you may have some tough games in the early part of the regional tournament,” Cupples said. “When I saw the draw, I knew it was going to be tough.”
And tough it was with Kayla Guthrie scoring the decisive goal 5:53 into the second half after the Lady Chargers had 15 unsuccessful shots on goal in the game at that point.
Both teams fought to a scoreless draw in the first half with the Lady Chargers narrowly missing the net on several shots and Crockett County goalkeeper Emma Karvik making some great saves. The Lady Chargers had 12 shots at the net in the first half while holding the Lady Cavaliers to six shots.
Westview’s second goal was a gift by Crockett County on Shelby Donavant’s corner kick.
The Lady Cavaliers crowded the net on the corner kick and inadvertently pushed the ball into the net, giving Westview a 2-0 lead with 11:11 to play in the game.
Sophomore forward Alexus Taylor gave the Lady Chargers some added breathing room on her goal with just over five minutes to play in the game just one second after Emily Plunk’s shot on goal was blocked.
Cupples said the effort and the fact that his girls were not ready for this season to end was pivotal against the Lady Cavaliers.
“It was not the cleanest game; it was not the prettiest game,” Cupples said. “But you know what? Effort usually wins, and I have been telling them that from Day 1 so we finally finished it tonight.”
Westview had 23 shots at the net for game compared to only 11 for Crockett County.
Cupples knew with that many shots against a quality opponent one or two were bound to go in at some point during the game.
“That is what we kept thinking,” Cupples said about all of the narrow misses. “Everyone that misses by two or three feet you are thinking, ‘Why can’t that go in and what are we doing wrong?’ You just have to keep it going and plugging it along. Sooner or later something is going to work.”
Senior keeper, Makenzie Vincent had 13 saves for the Lady Chargers.
Westview will now play Covington 7 p.m. on Thursday as the tournament shifts to Dyersburg. Published in The WCP 10.18.12

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