Kirk Academy ran into one of the top girls soccer teams last Thursday in the semifinals of the Midsouth Association of Independent Schools Division III Playoffs facing Laurel Christian School Lady Lions. Laurel came into the contest with a 13-2 mark and was the 2020 state champion in Division III. The Lady Lions took a step toward another title with a 5-1 win over the Raiderettes
“First, it’s a tough place to go and play,” KA head coach Chris Wilkinson said. “It shows the importance of getting that top seed and not having to travel in this case four hours. They have a quality program and that’s why they have won state championships.”
The Lady Lions took the lead scoring when a shot bounced off a Kirk player and ended up in the goal. They added two more goals to lead 3-0 at halftime. Kirk’s lone goal came from Molly Gibson as they got within 3-1 at one point. Laurel added a pair of late goals to account for the final margin.
“We had an opportunity to score in the final 20 minutes of the contest,” Wilkinson said.
With the loss, Kirk ends its season with a 7-7 mark.
Opening Round
The Raiderettes advanced to the semifinals of the Division III soccer playoffs with a 3-0 shutout win over Discovery Christian School of Florence last Tuesday at Grenada.
Wilkinson was pleased with his team’s effort in the contest.
“I thought it was an all around complete game for us,” he said. “Defensively, of course, we had the shutout but beyond that we limited the chances on our goal to only two shots on target and kept the ball out of our defensive half for the majority of the game.”
The head coach would have liked to see his team be more aggressive attacking the goal.
“From an attacking standpoint we looked for our shots and never tried to force it,” Wilkinson said. “If there’s anything I felt like we could improve on its that. I thought we were actually too selective in our shots and probably could have taken a few more shots on goal.”
Abby Redwine had a goal. Mak Kendall scored on an assist from Skylar Vance and Emily Lane made it 3-0 using an assist from Kendall.
