JAMESTOWN — The Legacy Christian Academy Knights brought their A game to Greeneview’s Don Nock Field Tuesday.
“A” as in Alli Graves and Audrey Stanley.
The high scoring Legacy duo combined for five goals (three by Graves) as the Knights held off a scrappy Greeneview team, 5-4, in a first round Division III girls sectional soccer game played in rain, and snow, and graupel (oh my).
Behind Stanley and Graves — who entered the match with 20 and 14 goals respectively — Legacy jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead eight minutes in. Stanley went on a long run and beat the keeper, who had come out to make a play for the first goal. Graves followed with the first of her three, tapping in a ball that a Greeneview player nearly saved on the line as it went in.
Daylee Sandlin drew the Rams to within one goal with 19:15 left, following up a missed save, and then she fed Kayden Ashley with a perfect pass for a tying goal 10 minutes later.
Graves scored No. 2 on a 40-yard poke that just tucked in under the crossbar with 4:18 left in the half. She then notched the hat trick with 33:53 left in the game, slipping by a defender and finishing a one-on-one with the keeper to make it 4-2.
“It was crazy,” Graves said of her night. “Everyone was playing hard. The field was like super slippery and wet. I got lucky on the (first) one.”
But the Rams weren’t done.
Jaleigh Stafford made it 4-3 with 26:21 left on a turn-and-shoot rocket from about 25 yards out. However, Stanley scored eight minutes later on a 20-yarder to make it a two-goal game once again. Ashley scored her second goal with 1:19 left for the final margin.
“Any time the field’s wet, anything can happen,” Legacy Coach Brett Stanley said. “Especially on a bumpy football field as well. I knew that just two goals would not be enough insurance tonight. I think we knew we still had a threat up front. So we just continued. We didn’t really change and play defensively until about the last 10 minutes of the game. Sometimes when you play too defensively that can kind of bite you and you end up losing as well.”
No. 11 Legacy (15-2-1) will host No. 13 Brookville at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, while the Rams end their season at 8-8-1.
