Lady Dawgs soccer thumps West Lincoln

Franklin County’s varsity Lady Soccer Dawgs finished their regular season campaign with a road dominating 5-1 victory over the West Lincoln Lady Bears on Wednesday, Jan. 19.

Senior Kayleigh Bolt had a stellar effort for FC — thanks to a career-high four assists.

“She had three assists on ‘through’ balls that led to a pair of break-away scores for Kayleigh Foy and a single goal for Gre’Yonne Queen,” Lady Dawgs Head Coach Jeff Long said following the game.

“Bolt’s fourth assist came on a corner kick that helped teammate Lilly Hutto head the ball to the back post for another score.”

Foy was also credited with an assist that allowed Ashlynn O’Quinn to connect on a drop pass that fell inside the near post for another goal.

Offensively, the Lady Soccer Dawgs outpaced West Lincoln in the shots department with a 26 to 4 run for the contest.

FC finished with 16 shots on goal and scored two goals before the mid-game break and three more after intermission.

Bolt, who also scored a goal, wound up leading the winning squad with a team-high six shots with four shots on goal while Foy recorded five shots and four SOG.

Hutto was also strong on offense with four shots and three shots on goal with O’Quinn and Queen both collecting three shots apiece with two and one SOG, respectively.

The Lady Bears scored a cosmetic goal in the second half on an empty FC net.

Defensively, FC collected 65 stops with Ali Bolt pacing the team with nine take-aways.

Others making stops against West Lincoln were: Braxton Martin, 8; Amberly Wallace, 7; Karlee Wallace, 7; Kayleigh Bolt, 6; Hutto, 6; O’Quinn, 5; Brooklynn Cupit, 5; Kayleigh Foy, 4; Addison Cooper, 2; Queen, 2; Edniya Gordon, 1; Meg Kelly, 1; and Morgan Laird, 1.

Goalkeeper Katherine Romero went the distance in front of the net and collected three saves for her efforts.

The victory marked Romero’s 10th win of the season.

The Lady Soccer Dawgs ended their regular season campaign with a 14-7 record and were 8-2 in District 7 competition.

“I am really proud of the girls for finishing the season the right way,” Long said of his team.

“They played some very good teams this season outside of our district and took some losses early. That might have shaken our confidence a bit, but they have continued to work hard and finished the regular season attacking with numbers and creating more chances and goals along the way.

“We didn’t play to our potential a few times and that hurt us in our two district losses. We have learned from our mistakes and were making fewer defensive errors. We have a better team and have bonded at the right time.”

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FC 3, HAZLEHURST 0

The Lady Soccer Dawgs claimed a 3-0 forfeit win over Hazlehurst last week as the Lady Indians were dealing with coronavirus infection protocols and could not play the contest.

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CLARKDALE 5, FC 0

Franklin County came up short in its first-round post-season playoff against Monday, Jan. 24 at Clarkdale.

Full results from the game were not available at press time, but will appear online and in next week’s print edition.