Lady Jags fall to the Gladiators
The Cedar Shoals Lady Jags’ losing streak against the Clarke Central Gladiators continued after a 4-1 loss in the Classic City Championship on March 21 at Waters-Wilkins Stadium.
Senior striker Zulma Valdivieso-Gutierrez scored Cedar’s only goal, tying the game 1-1 only a couple seconds into the second half. From there the Lady Jags ended up conceded three goals soon into the second half following the equalizer
Freshman center back Neko Vick thought the team kept up their intensity throughout the first half, staying competitive the entire game.“We did a good job of not immediately giving up after getting scored on. We made it through the rest of that first half and then scored to tie it up after. There was a good amount of time between each of the goals scored on us,” Vick said.
The Jags varsity assistant coach Hannah Doolittle has been coaching the team for five years and has been satisfied with the improvements the team has made against the Gladiators.
“Three years ago, we lost to Clarke Central 8-0, last year we lost 6-2, and this year, my goal was to lose 3-1. We lost 4-1 but I think it was due to some silly mistakes we made. We conceded some goals we shouldn’t have. I am pleased with the growth that we have shown,” Doolittle said.
Vick looks for the positives in the game but also notices the imperfections such as effort nearing the end and needing to take a little more time to slow down and think before passing or dribbling.
“There was definitely room for improvement. We had some really good moments on and off of the ball but also a lot of not so good moments near the end of the game. You could definitely tell we were getting tired. I think we could’ve stayed a little more composed and tried to keep the ball more instead of kicking it to nowhere,” Vick said.
Doolittle noticed how the team stayed calm when challenged and was impressed with their ability to find a quick comeback in the second half.
“I thought there were several moments where Clarke Central really started to ramp it up, but I thought that we maintained our composure very well, even after we got down and got scored on. I was extremely impressed with how quickly we were able to take advantage of the start of the second half with Zulma scoring in about 19 or 20 seconds,” Doolittle said.
The Lady Jags have five games left following the loss against the Gladiators. On April 2 the Lady Jags play Banks County for senior night and then face off against Flowery Branch on April 14 for their last region game of the season.
