Cabot unable slow down dominant Lady Hornets
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).
Even an old Central Conference rival couldn’t hang with the 2013 Bryant Lady Hornets.
On Thursday, Bryant, which has been running roughshod through the beleaguered South Conference this season, hosted the Cabot Lady Panthers (now in the East Conference) and treated them just like the teams in the South, rolling to a 7-0 lead on the way to a 7-1 win.
The Lady Hornets, who have outscored three league opponents, 19-1, improved to 10-1-1 overall with the victory. They’re set to host Lake Hamilton, another South foe tonight.
Senior Shelby Gartrell had another hat trick with three goals in the match. Her first two came early on, both off of assists from younger sister, Bailey Gartrell. Before the half was over, Rori Whittaker knocked through the first of her two goals, a long kick off a feed from Jacie McMahan, who followed up with a goal off an assist from Lexie Balisterri.
In the second half, Morgan Hawkins got in on the fun, finding the back of the net off an assist from Katie Barrington. Whittaker’s second goal came off a feed from Hawkins then Shelby Gartrell got one past the keeper with Balisterri picking up her second assist.
Cabot managed a goal after that, about midway through the second half.
“We cleared the ball out and they took a shot from far out but it was a good shot,” recounted Lady Hornets coach Julie Long, whose team hasn’t had a single match this season in which the opposition scored more than one goal.
“I was very pleased with how the girls played,” added the coach. “They moved the ball better than they have since we’ve been back from spring break. They were pretty vocal, talking. And they felt pretty good about the game.
“I felt good about the game,” she continued. “We’ve still got some fine-tuning to do. There’s little things we need to consistently get better at.”
There have been some nights that the Bryant defense has hardly seen any action the Lady Hornets have been so dominant, but they got a little more work against Cabot.
“They’ve kind of developed a few bad habits that we’ve talked about,” Long acknowledged. “But then once they kind of settled into it, it was a lot better. I could see the difference in our first half defense to the second as far as how they settled in and started playing the way they’re supposed to be playing.”
She noted that keeper Kayla Dreher “had one big save.”
