BLYTHEWOOD – The Blythewood Soccer team kept the pressure on Rock Hill Friday night, and when the kicks were complete at District 2 stadium, the Bengals finished off a 9-0 shutout over the Bearcats, giving head coach Kathy Knight her 100th win.
“It was a great surprise, I haven’t even been keeping tally,” said Knight, in her eighth year coaching the Bengals. “To find that out at the end of the game, it was just the icing on the cake for it to be tonight.”
Knight entering triple digits would have come a year earlier, were it not for the global pandemic and the public health emergency that followed closing down the 2020 athletic season after six games.
Rock Hill, bringing just 11 players to the game, felt the pressure of the Bengals right from the kickoff. The Bearcats eventually became an 11-person goalkeeper against Blythewood, which kept the ball on the Rock Hill side throughout the game.
Blythewood took 14 shots on goal by the final minutes of the first half, and Rock Hill keeper Abby Vaulk and her team fended off all of them—except Lauren Hendry’s shot at the 2:50 mark. Hendry took a pass from Madison Powell and powered it past the reach of Vaulk to put the Bengals up 1-0, a lead they held going into intermission.
“In the first half they (Rock Hill) did a really good job packing the back and stepping to the ball first before us,” Knight said. “At halftime we had to make a lot of adjustments to get the ball moving, taking just those quick one-two touches and passing quickly in order to keep them moving.”
Hendry struck again two minutes into the second half, this time from Maya Moran’s corner kick. Moran got the assist.
“We had a lot of missed opportunities in the first half,” Hendry said. “It was good to have a goal in the last three minutes, it lifted up our spirits and gave us confidence for the second half.”
Once Hendry’s goals were in the net, the Bengals kept finding scoring avenues.
Meredith Stone put one in at the 28-minute mark, with Hendry getting the assist.
Nine minutes later, Rock Hill suffered an own goal when one of the players inadvertently kicked the ball in on Stone’s corner kick.
“We just decided to play our game by then, and opened up and making sure that we were technically sound,” Stone said. “I think that helped us a lot, focusing on moving the ball around a lot instead of panicking.”
Emery Christensen struck the back of the net with 12:40 to go, after taking the rebound when her previous shot was kicked away. Olivia Harris took the assist on that play, which put Blythewood up 5-0.
Four goals in the final 10 minutes sealed the win.
Maya Moran headed in a shot with Megan Moran getting the assist. After Lydia Daniels’ goal came off of Michaela Bosmans’ assist, Macy Moran came out of the net as goalkeeper and put on a field jersey to score a goal with 2 minutes left.
“It was nice to see every senior score, even our goalkeeper,” Knight said. “She (Macy Moran) plays on the field as well, but in her club.”
Daniels closed things out with a goal with about a minute to play.
All four seniors honored on senior night scored for the Bengals – Hendry twice, Stone, and Macy and Maya Moran. Daniels also scored twice.
“It’s crazy,” Stone said. “It feels incredible. Everything you’ve worked for for the past four years is just good to see it pay off.”
Blythewood (10-2, 6-0) defeated Spring Valley (7-8, 6-2) 3-0 Tuesday night to clinch the Region 4-5A championship. Emery Christensen scored a goal and had an assist, and Hendry and Evelyn Wright had goals. Meredith Stone had two assists.
Blythewood is at Ridge View Friday.