Lady Jackets rally to make SAC finals

May 8—For 47 minutes of Tuesday night's semifinal match in the Sandhills Athletic Conference women's soccer tournament, it looked like Lee County would head into the state playoffs on a down note, and that the final would be an all-Moore County showdown.

Then the best player on the field made a big play, the momentum shifted the other way, and after 100 hard-fought minutes, the Lady Jackets had come from down two goals for a 3-2 victory over Pinecrest.

The Lady Jackets, who improved to 20-4 on the season for the first 20-win campaign in program history, will travel to Union Pines (16-3-2) Thursday evening at 6 p.m. to play for the tournament title. The two teams, both from the 3A half of the league, will finish 1-2 in both the regular-season and tournament. The Lady Jackets, who finished a half-game behind in the former, will try to reverse the verdict in the tournament.

However, the Lady Patriots (12-7-1) had something to say about this race, as they almost always do. Pinecrest finished one goal short of forcing a tri-championship in the regular season when they could only draw with Union Pines in their last game. After blanking Hoke in the first round of the tournament, they traveled to face Lee on Tuesday. The teams split during the season, but Pinecrest creates some matchup issues for Lee, and on top of that, the Lady Jackets came out flat.

Pinecrest jumped out in front around the 12-minute mark, when Anna Depenbrock finished on a pass from teammate Kamden Lewis, and the Patriots maintained that edge throughout the rest of the first half, frequently beating Lee to the punch on loose balls and preventing the Lady Jackets from developing an attack through superior ball-handling and possession. If not for the strong effort of defenders Kenzy Martinez and Addy Allen, this match might not have stayed close.

Pinecrest kept the pressure up after the half, when the Lee fullbacks had to clear two balls in front of their own goal in the first two minutes. Then the defense gave up a corner kick, and in the middle of the 43rd minute of play, Lewis finished the corner off by knocking a ball inside the left post for a 2-0 Patriots lead.

But Gillian Garrison isn't All-State and isn't a Division I college recruit for nothing. And when her team needed her most, she stepped up.

Four minutes after the second Patriot goal, Garrison received a pass from teammate Lila Moshfegh near the mid-point of the field and headed down the home sideline, deftly keeping the ball inbounds even as she hugged the sideline. The Patriot defense took chase, and two of them caught up with her as she neared the end line, but Garrison beat the one who had been following her all the way and turned toward the goal, where she also beat the second defender and finished point-blank against Patriot keeper Ava Depenbrock in the middle of the 47th minute.

Now it was 2-1, and all of the sudden, the Lady Jackets came to life. They nearly tied it a few minutes later, when Abigail Gaddy-Harrison just barely missed connections off a Moshfegh corner. But now Moshfegh was winning balls in the middle and Ava Baldwin was controlling the home side of the midfield. Lee kept the heat on, and in minute 55, the Lady Jackets pulled even. This time, Garrison found free space in the middle of the Patriot defense and headed for the goal. Ava Depenbrock found herself all alone against Garrison and made a desperate lunge at the ball, upending Garrison in the process.

A penalty kick was awarded, and Garrison picked herself up off the field and calmly put it into the net to tie the match.

Pinecrest had a few chances late in the match as the Lady Jackets appeared to be wearing down on the defensive end. At the 75-minute mark, Martinez first made a save on a Patriot shot and then cleared a corner kick moments later. At the start of the 79th minute, Anna Depenbrock had an open shot to possibly win the game, but missed the net.

The match went into overtime and neither team scored in the first 10-minute period, but two minutes into the second overtime period, in minute 92, Moshfegh found herself open and buried the go-ahead goal from 25 yards away, sending the ball just below the crossbar near the right post. The Lady Jacket defense held on from there and put win No. 20 into the books.

Lee keeper Diana Ponce lost her streak of five consecutive shutouts, but traded that for a revenge win over the last team that beat her, making seven saves in the process.

Union Pines beat Richmond 4-0 in the other semifinal, which was played on the pitch at North Moore High School.