Bryant girls ease to win over Lake Hamilton behind Shelby Gartrell
EDITOR’S NOTE: In this time of COVID-19, with no sports action, BryantDaily.com will be posting past stories of Bryant athletics either posted on BryantDaily.com (from 2009 to the present) or published in the Bryant Times (from 1998 to 2008).
PEARCY — Senior Shelby Gartrell scored four goals and had two assists to lead the Bryant Lady Hornets to a 7-0 win over the Lake Hamilton Lady Wolves Tuesday.
Anna Lowery, Jacie McMahan and Bailey Gartrell each had goals as well as the Lady Hornets improved to 17-2-1 overall and 9-0 in the South Conference going into their season finale at home against El Dorado this Friday. El Dorado’s lone league loss this season was to Bryant so the Lady Wildcats will be trying to earn a share of the league title.
Bryant, vying for one of the top two seeds to the Class 7A State Tournament among West Conference teams, can complete an unbeaten run through the South Conference and, as champions, garner an additional 10 points toward their ratings total, which will determine the seeding.
“Obviously, Shelby had a tremendous game,” said Lady Hornets coach Julie Long. “Overall, the girls played a good game. We had a lot of possession the second half, which was something we’ve been wanting to work on. I felt like, the second half, we played better as a team.
“We’re just trying to get better, get ready for El Dorado and get ready for the State Tournament,” she added.
Bryant was so dominant Lake Hamilton was unable to even muster a shot on goal.
The game wasn’t more than a minute old when the Lady Hornets broke the ice with the first of their five first-half goals. Shelby Gartrell scored it off an assist by Lexie Balisterri. Four minutes later, her second goal came off a feed from Bailey Gartrell.
At the 16:00 mark, Lowery scored with Emily Pierce providing the assist. Just two minutes later, McMahan scored off a feed from Shelby Gartrell. And just before the end of the half, Gartrell’s third goal occurred, again with a feed from Balisterri.
Both Gartrell twins scored in the second half, which was abbreviated due to the mercy rule once Bryant built the lead to 6-0. The sixth goal was Shelby Gartrell’s fourth. Katie Barrington assisted. To cap things off, Shelby assisted on Bailey’s goal.
