Blythewood soccer seniors were honored Monday before their final regular season home game. | Photos/Ross Burton
BLYTHEWOOD – Blythewood’s girls soccer bounced back into the season following a Spring Break layover with an impressive 8-0 shutout of Lugoff-Elgin Monday night.
Claudia Watson led the way with four goals and an assist.
Claire Ellis and Lauren Hendry each had a goal and an assist. Abby Griffin and Maya Moran also had goals. Liz Schlossel and Ansley Stone each had an assist.
“We talked about togetherness,” Blythewood head coach Kathy Knight said. “We talked about being purposeful and playing as a team, and they really worked together and combining. It was nice to see.”
With the win, Blythewood (15-4-3) closes out a 7-1 Region 4-5A record, good enough for second place behind Spring Valley. The Bengals close the regular season with a non-region game at Chapin Friday.
Watson (18) has “been on fire this season.”
“We have a lot of work to do in preparing,” Knight said. “Chapin has historically had a strong program. It’ll be nice to have a challenge right before we move into the state playoffs next week.”
State playoffs start Monday. Blythewood will host a team in the upper state bracket.
Before the game, seniors Abby Griffin, Claire Ellis, Ansley Stone, Katie Murphy, Hannah Chappell, Taylor Stephenson, and Erica Zippel were honored on their last home game with the team.
Shortly after the ceremony, Watson, a junior, sparked the team’s offensive surge with a one-on-one confrontation with goalkeeper Marissa Lamaire three and a half minutes into the game.
Watson struck again 10 minutes later when she drove in a pass from Stone.
“She’s really been on fire this season,” Knight said. “She’s been working really hard up top. She’s our target forward and she’s been working on her finishing.”
Hendry’s goal on a Griffin assist gave the Bengals a 3-0 lead at halftime.
Ellis made good with a goal at the 30-minute mark to open the second-half surge.
Two minutes after Ellis, Watson put a pass from Schossler into the net. Two minutes after that, Watson put the Bengals up 6-0 with a pass from Ellis.
Moran’s goal on Hendry’s assist at the 16-minute mark and Griffin’s goal with 6 minutes left closed out the scoring.
“All the seniors played in the first 40 minutes, except for Erica Zippel, she was injured,” Knight said. “It was nice to see everybody get in there.”