Lady Bucs adjust, rout East Ridge

photo Boyd-Buchanan's Tate Gardenhied (16) battles East Ridge's Serena Smith (4) for possession of the ball Tuesday at Boyd-Buchanan High School.

The Boyd-Buchanan girls' soccer team was confused by the formation East Ridge presented at the beginning of their Region 3-A/AA semifinal match Tuesday. As a result, the Lady Bucs did the only thing they knew to do.

They attacked.

Emily Hauke finished with a hat trick while Emma Rogers and Taylor Barber added two goals apiece in a 7-1 win over the Lady Pioneers at Boyd-Buchanan. The win puts the Lady Bucs (13-5-2) in the region final against Grace Academy (13-5), which defeated Hixson 4-0 in the other semifinal.

The Lady Pioneers (7-9-2) started the match with seven defenders in the box. It was a tactic coach Jeremy McIntyre used to force Boyd-Buchanan to take shots from distance, and in theory it worked because the Lady Bucs weren't able to penetrate and combine on passes to lead to goals.

"We hoped we could get lucky and shut them down," he said. "It didn't work, but it was worth a try."

Rogers scored in the fifth and 18th minutes, and then Hauke added her first goal and Barber scored before the first half ended.

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Hauke admitted the Lady Bucs were "confused" by the formation they encountered.

"It was pretty hard to understand early," the freshman said. "We were pretty good once we figured out that we were going to have to shoot from outside."

Hauke scored her final two goals in the second half, while Barber added her second in the 66th minute.

"It was a very different formation. It took a while for us to break it down," Boyd-Buchanan coach Todd Ledbetter said. "We'd never seen anything like that before."

East Ridge's Kayla Deck prevented the shutout with a goal in the 62nd minute.

Boyd-Buchanan will be continue one of the most successful seasons in school history Thursday against the Lady Golden Eagles. The Lady Bucs tied the program record for wins in a season Tuesday, and last week's win over Grace was the team's first-ever district tournament championship.

"We have to have a new focus on working hard so we can go as far as we can," Hauke said. "We've made it this far, so we might as well keep going."

• Grace Academy 4, Hixson 0: The Lady Golden Eagles received two first-half goals from Elisabeth Mouw, and Danielle Shumaker and Kayla Bibbs added goals in the final 40 minutes to get the Lady Golden Eagles a third shot at Boyd-Buchanan.

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.

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