CITIZEN STAFF REPORT
LOUISA — Martin County Middle School Lady Cards advanced to the OVC Conference after finishing as runner-up in the OVC East District Tournament last week.
Martin County entered the tournament with a 7-3 record and ranked second in the district.
Lawrence County hosted the district tournament and faced Martin County in the first round. During the regular season, they faced each other twice, with each team coming away with a victory from last-minute goals.
As expected, the game was a close, hard-fought battle between two evenly matched teams. The defense from both teams was aggressive, holding each other to only a few shots on goal.
Late in the first half, Jaz Jude found an open Annaleigh Davis for a goal to give Martin County the lead 1-0.
In the second half the Lady Cards got more shots on goal but could not find the net.
The Lady Cards made a mistake with only minutes left in the game to give Lawrence County a chance to tie on a P. The Bulldogs missed the goal and the Lady Cards came away with a 1-0 victory.
Martin County advanced to the championship for the second year in a row and again faced Johnson Central. Last year’s contest was an exciting overtime victory for Martin County, which finished second in the OVC Conference tournament.
The Lady Cards had their work cut out for them, facing a much older team in the Eagles.
The two teams had faced each other twice in the regular season, with JC coming out on top both times.
Martin County stayed on defense for most of the first half. The Eagles moved the ball well, putting pressure on Martin County, which looked up to the challenge.
The Lady Cards made some mistakes leading to goals, to end the half down 3-0.
Martin County was not going down without a fight and changed to a more offensive formation for the second half. The change led to more shots on goal, but it was not enough as JC came away with a 6-1 victory.
Martin advanced to the OVC Conference Tournament at Russell Middle School, with the Lady Cards taking on East Carter on Tuesday (May 14). Details from that game were not available at press time.
