Cleveland earns tie with East Hamilton

photo Baleigh Ellis of Cleveland High School and Danielle Branham of East Hamilton High School (left to right) fight for possession of the ball during a soccer match at East Hamilton High School on Thursday. Post season play begins next week.

In one postgame huddle Thursday, Cleveland soccer coach Andy Byrd was stressing to his girls the "what-ifs" had they played the first half like they performed in the second half against East Hamilton.

In the other huddle, Lady Hurricanes coach John Millard was preaching about what could have been had his girls played the second half like they did the first.

The teams tied 1-1 at East Hamilton in a nondistrict contest Thursday. That left the hosts, ranked eighth in the state in Class A/AA, with an 8-6-1 record, while Cleveland moved to 7-6-3.

East Hamilton dominated the first 40 minutes of possession, moving the ball with precision and creating some scoring opportunities. The Lady Hurricanes had five shots on goal in the first half, with Yinka Ladapo working the right side to create some chances. With about 10 minutes remaining, she sent a cross to Chandler Smith, who touched the ball past Cleveland keeper Jenna Scoggins for a 1-0 advantage.

Millard was pleased with the first-half performance but unhappy about his team's overall inability to finish shots.

"We had nine corner kicks and weren't able to put any of them away," he said. "Overall, though, I was pleased with the energy we had. We talked about things we needed to do better before the match, and I thought we responded for the most part."

Millard's first-half happiness turned into second-half disappointment, however, as Cleveland started to dominate possession. The Lady Raiders won "50-50 balls" and created their own opportunities, led by sisters Hannah and Bayleigh Ellis. Hannah had an opportunity on a breakaway that keeper Kendra Ivins made a sliding kick save on, and later Bayleigh touched the ball past Ivins but failed to convert close.

With about 18 minutes remaining, Hannah took a pass from Bayleigh and scored from distance to tie the score.

"At halftime, I told the girls that half's over with," said Byrd, who lost junior defender Alex Hutt to a severe shoulder strain in the first half. "I challenged them and told them that the next 40 minutes was going to define our season, and the girls responded.

"We lost a player and had to be the team that kept our head in adverse measures, and I thought we did. Did we get better? I thought we took one step back, then two steps forward."

Said Millard: "I thought Cleveland worked hard and we didn't respond how I wanted us to respond. This is the type of game we're going to have to win in the postseason, so this was a good game for us in that respect."

Upcoming Events