Frontier Athletic Conference play began for girls soccer on Tuesday, Aug. 27 at McClain High School as the Lady Tigers (4-0) hosted the Lady Lions (2-0).

Coming into the contest, McClain had outscored their opponents 43-1 to begin the season, averaging over 10 goals per contest. Washington had outscored opponents 4-2 to start their campaign.

While the Lady Lions were able to hold the Lady Tigers well under their average, they were not able to get in the scoring column and were defeated 4-0.

For McClain, they were led by sophomore Paisley Pryor who had a hat trick, scoring one goal in the first half and two goals in the second half. The fourth goal was scored in the first half by junior Addison Olaker.

Statistically for the Lady Lions, Jordyn Gray and Olivia Haycook each had three shots on goal and Destany Snyder had two shots on goal.

In goal, freshman Eydyn Gibbs had 12 saves on 12 shots at goal, Avah Ruggles had two saves on three shots at goal, and Evie Wiseman had nine saves on ten shots at goal.

Washington head coach Brandan Ellars spoke following the loss.

“Coming out here in these elements, that alone is tough. That’s tough on any team, and they had to play in this heat as well. What I’m proud of is that McClain has been averaging around 10 goals a game and we held them to four goals. If we take care of a few little things, we are right there with them.

“I felt like there were moments where we were the better team, and moments where we kind of gave up a little bit. Today, they had the upper hand and wanted it a little bit more than us.”

He finished, “I’m proud of our girls. We are going to reconvene, have a good practice tomorrow and prepare ourselves for Hillsboro. I still think that these are the teams we can come in and compete with. We just have to keep playing forward and keep preparing ourselves. It’s all we can do at this point.

Washington (2-1, 0-1 FAC) played at home on Thursday against Hillsboro (2-2, 0-1 FAC). The Lady Indians fell 5-1 to Chillicothe (1-1, 1-0 FAC) on Tuesday.

McClain (5-0, 1-0 FAC) returned to action on Thursday at Jackson (3-1, 1-0 FAC). The Ironladies defeated Miami Trace (1-1, 0-1 FAC) by a score of 2-1 on Tuesday.