Silverdale's Sydney Smith (15) fights Boyd-Buchanan's Logan Highfield (10) for possession of the ball Thursday at Silverdale Academy .The Boyd-Buchanan girls' soccer team will have two more chances this regular season to get their first nondistrict win. But in District 5-A/AA they're unblemished.
The Lady Bucs completed an 8-0 regular season in district play Thursday afternoon with a 1-0 win over Silverdale Baptist Academy. The lone goal came from Madison Meadows, who knocked in a Logan Highfield cross in the 21st minute to provide the difference.
Even with that first-half lead, Lady Bucs coach Todd Ledbetter wasn't pleased with his team's play, and he let the players know it at halftime.
"We weren't winning the 50-50 balls in the first half," he said. "Silverdale had energy, which I knew they would because they wanted to beat us. We came out lackadaisical, and played like we thought Silverdale was going to bow down to us. In the second half, we won more 50-50 balls.
"Things got a little chaotic in the last five minutes, but we were able to stay organized and pull out the win."
The Lady Seahawks had chances early and late. Savannah Buckley was active in the attack in the early part of the match, but with the team missing a pair of midfielders, she had to drop back and help at that level later.
Her team's most dangerous chance came with under five minutes remaining, when defender Lindsey Newell sent a high-arching ball toward the goal and it bounced at about the 6-yard line. Lady Bucs goalkeeper Ana Lafontaine was able to corral the shot right before a hard-charging Kirby Howard could get to it.
"We lost the battle in the midfield," Silverdale coach Chris Neighbors said. "In the second half, we didn't win the 50-50 balls; they didn't allow us to get any opportunities, and you have to credit Boyd for that."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.