Even the most defensive of approaches early on by the Lutcher High girls soccer team was no match for Vandebilt Catholic on Tuesday night.
Despite the Lady Bulldogs loading up on defense and attempting to roadblock the area around their goal, the Lady Terriers scored twice early and rolled to an 8-0 mercy-rule victory behind five goals from Molly Thompson in the second round of the Division III playoffs from Buddy Marcello Stadium in Houma.
Vandebilt dispatched of its District 5-III rivals by a combined score of 23-1 in their three matches this season and improved to 25-4-2 overall after Tuesday’s win.
“They had a lot people defending so it was harder to make runs and attack, but we did a good job of dropping it back and shooting from further out,” said Thompson, a senior forward. “We did a good job of finishing.”
The two-time defending D-III state champion Lady Terriers will next face either No. 9 St. Martinville or No. 8 North Desoto in the quarterfinal round. St. Martinsville and North DeSoto play today.
Vandebilt led 5-0 at halftime after four goals from Thompson and another by Carra Hymel, who turned and blasted a shot into the upper right corner of the net, in the first 40 minutes.
“We were pretty well prepared,” Lady Terriers coach Phil Amedee said. “When you play an opponent twice you know their strengths and weaknesses. They came out in a heavy defensive posture. It took us a little while to get settled. We played some good through balls. The disadvantage of playing defensively is once you get behind two goals it makes it tough. Once they started opening up, we came at them with the counter attack.”
After a slight rain started to fall in the second half, Sydney Marcel made it 6-0 by sliding a shot into the lower right corner in the 47th minute before Thompson got loose for a break-away goal that made it 7-0 in the 48th minute.
A couple minutes later, Gillian Breaux found herself on the other end of ball into the box from Anna Doskey and Breaux finished off Lutcher (8-14-3 overall) with a goal for the 8-0 final.
Camryn Beebe got the clean-sheet victory in goal for the Lady Terriers.
“It’s just another rung on the ladder for us,” Amedee said. “Hopefully we can climb three more of them.”