Soddy-Daisy's Summer Lanter, 14, pulls back to kick past Warren County keeper Lyndi Dodd as Dodd's teammate Nicole Mullican rushes in.Warren County girls' soccer coach Todd Willmore made an adjustment to try to slow the Soddy-Daisy attack before their Region 3-AAA semifinal match Tuesday.
Lady Trojans coach Moises Drumond made a counter measure to speed it up.
Summer Lanter had three goals and Hannah Wyatt added two goals and an assist as Soddy-Daisy defeated the Lady Pioneers 6-0, improving to 16-2-2 on the season and advancing to Thursday's region final against Cookeville.
The Lady Trojans will host the Lady Cavaliers, who defeated Cleveland 2-1 on Monday.
Having fallen to Soddy-Daisy 5-1 during the season, the Lady Pioneers pushed five defenders, which created tougher scoring opportunities for the hosts. Drumond encouraged his players to change their point of attack.
"We were attacking them down the middle, but we needed to get the ball on the wings and attack that way," he said. "Once we got that first goal, we settled down."
The plan worked in the 27th minute, when Natalie Smith crossed the ball into Lanter, who turned, side-stepped a defender and fired a shot for the first goal of the evening. The lead grew to 2-0 when Wyatt passed the ball to Lanter, who sped down the left sideline and scored again.
Seven minutes into the second half, Smith passed to Wyatt for a goal, and then Megan Weller fed Lanter to complete her hat trick.
Wyatt and Weller added goals in the final 20 minutes to complete the scoring.
Warren County finished the season 16-5, winning its first regular-season district championship in recent memory.
"I'm pleased. We've come a long way," Willmore said. "Soddy-Daisy gives us something more to aspire to. I didn't think we played all too well tonight, but they have so much team speed and they're technical. I thought our team had decent speed, but Soddy-Daisy is better than most.
"With their speed and ability to make technical plays, they're tough to defend."