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Lady Chargers on short end in defensive struggle
Stephanie Sturgis - Press Sports Editor
As a result, Dyersburg (10-1-1) earned the hard-fought 1-0 win and the top spot in the District 14 A-AA standings. Westview (8-3, 5-2) falls into a three-way tie with Crockett County and Covington for second place. The final district standings and playoff bracket will be determined during a coaches meeting on Wednesday. "Their defense collapsed on us with their stopper back behind the defense. That really has given us problems," Westview head coach Stan Vickers said. The Westview offense had its strongest surge during the first 15 minutes of the second half, but couldn't get a shot past Lady Trojan keeper Shelby Hubbard. "At halftime, I challenged the girls to keep it on our offensive half. We played well in the second half and gave ourselves several chances," Vickers noted. It was Westview that had the game's first scoring chance when Caitlin Campbell let loose a hard shot that was just wide two minutes into the action. A minute later, the Lady Trojans tried to take the advantage. WHS goalkeeper Macy Vincent came out of the net to meet an attacking forward. Behind Vincent, the rest of the Lady Chargers swept away the ensuing DHS scoring chance. A few minutes later, Lady Charger junior midfielder Marissa Morales went down with a leg injury behind the play and was carried from the field. Dyersburg scored the game's only goal 15 minutes into the action when Emma Caylor slid a low hard shot from the right side beyond a reaching Vincent and inside the left post. The Lady Chargers had another excellent chance to score at the 27-minute mark. Kayla Gutherie brought the ball down the right side and fed a pass to Regan Ward in the penalty box. Ward's shot was off target, but there were no Lady Chargers following on the back side to boot in the rebound. With six minutes left in the half, Caylor rushed in from the right side and Vincent again charged out to meet her, forcing a soft lob of a shot over the keeper. Vincent hustled back and immediately stopped another shot from along the goal line to keep the WHS deficit at one at the halftime intermission. "Macy played fantastic. She saved several great shots, and so did Dyersburg's keeper on great shots we took," Vickers said. Campbell and Gutherie both had solid shots soon after halftime, but both were wide. Westview kept up the pressure but never did score in the tough 1-0 district loss.
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