The Oak Ridge girls soccer team will play for a district championship against Powell tonight (Thursday, October 17).
The game will start at 7 p.m. at the Pro2Serve soccer stadium at Oak Ridge High School.
This will be the fifth year in a row that Oak Ridge and Powell have played for the District 3-AAA championship.
The top two teams in the district, the Lady Wildcats and Lady Panthers met once during the regular season, and Oak Ridge won 2-1 in overtime. It was the girls’ first victory over Powell since 2016. That’s when the Lady Wildcats last won the district championship in a 2-0 victory at Powell.
Powell won the district championship by defeating Oak Ridge in 2015—the Powell girls’ first district title—and in 2017 and 2018.
Win or lose tonight, both teams will next advance to the Region 2-AAA semifinals. The two District 3 teams—Oak Ridge and Powell—will play two District 4 teams—Hardin Valley and Maryville—in the Region 2-AAA semifinals. The District 3 winner will host the District 4 runner-up, and the District 4 winner will host the District 3 runner-up. The District 4-AAA championship game is tonight at Maryville.
Oak Ridge advanced to the District 3 championship by defeating Halls 6-1 in a semifinal tournament game at home on Tuesday. Lady Wildcats senior Maddie Peters scored three goals, assisted by junior Taylor Del Toro and senior Katie O’Brien; O’Brien scored two goals, with an assist by junior Katelyn Mattus; and Mattus scored one.
Peters got past two Halls defenders on the left side of the field on her first goal early in the first half, and she shot the soccer ball into the back right side of the net for her second goal after a pass from right to left by O’Brien halfway through the first half.
Two minutes later, O’Brien scored from the right side of the field when the Halls goalkeeper came out to try to make a stop, and O’Brien kicked the ball into the back left side of the net. She scored again after a free kick, putting the ball inside the left upright with just under 14 minutes left in the first half.
Halls scored early in the second half, but Oak Ridge answered with the final two goals by Peters and Mattus.
The Lady Panthers advanced to the district championship game by beating Karns 4-0 in the other district semifinal game on Tuesday.
Oak Ridge has a 14-4 overall record and was undefeated in the district during the regular season, according to records kept by CoachT.com, and Powell is 11-4-1, with a 3-1 regular-season district record.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
You can contact John Huotari, owner and publisher of Oak Ridge Today, at (865) 951-9692 or [email protected].
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