XENIA — Patience may well turn out to be the buzzword for the 2020 edition of the Legacy Christian Academy 2020 girls soccer season.
After the long wait and wonder whether or not the season would be played at all, the Knights saw the first two games on the season schedule cancelled due to COVID-19. Finally, the opener came Saturday at Athletes in Action Sports Complex against the Southeastern Trojans and it ended in dramatic fashion.
After peppering the Trojans goal with 15 shots — eight of them on frame in the first 78 minutes — the Knights finally found the net with just 90 seconds to play for a 1-0 win.
The goal came as senior tri-captain Katie Leach stepped in front of the Southeastern goalkeeper’s kick. She then made a perfect diagonal pass to classmate and fellow captain Alyssa Free.
“The ball came right to me and I saw Alyssa,” Leach said. “I split the defense and she went around the last defender and had an open shot.”
Free said that’s exactly what she wanted Leach to do.
“I was right at the 18 (yard line), and saw Katie get the ball,” she said. “I called for it and was hoping Katie would split the defenders. She must have read my mind. When I got it, I just shot it with my left foot and it went in.”
That type of communication will be paramount for Legacy this season.
“We have a very young group of girls,” said first-year head coach Sharron Leach, who waited some 20 years of her own to take over the head coaching job at the high school level. “But we have three seniors who do a great job of directing the group and keeping the ball moving.”
The Knights have six freshman, five sophomores and three juniors on the roster. Abby Harmon is the third senior and tri-captain.
“There are some things we need to work on, of course,” Sharron Leach said. “The girls are trying to execute what we want to do. Offensively, we are trying to take the ball wide, keep it out of the middle. On defense, we want to condense the back and not be spread out.”
“It feels wonderful,” the coach added of the victory. “To have our first game and our first win of the season is just perfect.”
LCA will travel to Yellow Springs today for a 5 p.m. Metro Buckeye Conference game, before returning to AIA to host Fayetteville on Thursday.