Tuesday’s Girls Varsity Soccer matchup between the Batesville Lady Bulldogs and the Lawrenceburg Lady Tigers lived up to the hype that led into the match. It was 4th ranked Batesville hosting 14th ranked Lawrenceburg in a 2A EIAC showdown. The Lady Bulldogs edged out Lawrenceburg with a tight 1-0 victory. The Lady Tigers came out of the gates firing and had Batesville under pressure early, but it was senior goalkeeper, Ellie Waechter who made a big save to keep the score 0-0. Batesville would soon counter that effort with some of their own and it was Georgia Gratz scoring her 10th goal of the season to put the Lady Bulldogs up 1-0 which proved to be the game winner. Denise Davalos won the ball in the middle of the field and found Gratz sitting the in the pocket of the defense, Gratz cut right and left the defender going left as Gratz struck the shot past the outreached hands of Lawrenceburg’s goalkeeper Olivia Bosch. After the score, Lawrenceburg was on the offensive for much of the remaining 30 minutes, but it was the stingy defense from Batesville who kept the score 1-0 going into intermission.
In the second half, both teams had some good scoring opportunities. Waechter came up big with some nice saves on the Lawrenceburg chances. Late in the match, the Lady Tigers caught an unfortunate bounce as a shot struck the far post and into the hands of Waechter. “Our defense was tested for much of the game tonight. I am very proud of their effort and the fact that they recorded a shutout on a night when two of our strong forwards went down with ankle injuries and we were forced to play defense for a majority of the match. These types of wins will make us stronger come October tournament time!” Coach Laker commented. The defense was led by Ellie Waechter and Abbey Prickel who were tracking balls to the wings for much of the match. Liz Heidlage came up with a big sliding save late in the game to help maintain the shutout. Batesville outshot Lawrenceburg 17-13 for the match.
Batesville is now 4-0 in conference play and 6-0 on the season. The Lady Bulldogs are back in action Thursday as they travel to Columbus East.
In the JV game, the Lady Tigers defeated the Lady Bulldogs 5-1. Batesville was able to find the back of the net early in the match on a goal by Catherine Raab to take an early 1-0 lead. After the score, it was Lawrenceburg’s depth that was able to wear out the Lady Bulldogs in the heat and found the back of the net 3 times in the first half to take a 3-0 lead into halftime. The Lady Tigers were able to add two more in the second half to defeat the Lady Bulldogs.
Courtesy of Bulldogs Coach Kyle Laker.