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Battling it out for the second spot in conference and trying to keep pace with league-leader Salisbury, West came out fired up after beating the Hornets last week. A first half goal and three more in the second provided a 4-0 win for a squad that is peaking at the right time.
A lot of the Lady Panther offense goes through Young and Baker, but West would allow nothing easy. Just when it seemed like one of them found some daylight, there was always a defender stepping in to plug the hole.
“They played very well in their back and it seemed like they always had an extra defender back there no matter what,” said Ledford coach Matt Doyle. “They took us out of our game. We didn’t have some of the pressure on the ball we wanted and we didn’t get the shots we wanted. They came with the better team tonight.”
West was constantly causing problems for the Ledford defense, with speedster’s Kristin Owens and Casey Darnell getting behind the fullbacks. In the 21st minute of the game Owens played the ball on the ground to a streaking Darnell, who laced a low liner right at goalkeeper Grace Lackey. The ball skidded across the wet turf and slipped through the hands of Lackey for a 1-0 Green Dragon lead.
Ledford’s only real chance to score in the first half came off the foot of Young in space she created for herself, but the shot was easily stopped by West keeper Tesla Turnmire.
About the exact same time as Darnell scored in the first half, she tallied another in the second session. This time she took a free kick from nearly 30 yards out and chipped it over Lackey’s head for the score.
Still stinging from the goal, Ledford had a letdown on defense two minutes later as the Green Dragons built a 3-0 lead. This time it was Darnell crossing the ball to Owens, who jetted over the left side and blasted a shot to the far post that shook the net.
Ashlyn Owens accounted for the final West goal with 13 minutes remaining.
Ledford slips to 7-3 in the CCC with West keeping pace with Salisbury at 7-2.
The road for the Panthers in the coming days will be a treacherous one with games involving Salisbury, Trinity and East Davidson. Still, Ledford has a team capable of competing at a high level, and can turn the standings upside down if they can somehow knock off Salisbury.
“It is not going to be an easy road between here and the end of the year,” said Doyle.
Sports Editor Zach Kepley can be reached at 472-9500, ext. 234, or at kepley@tvilletimes.com.