Fort Mill’s season ends in Upper State title match

Losing its first in-state match all season, the Fort Mill High Yellow Jackets girls’ soccer team fell 3-0 to the J.L. Mann Patriots in the Upper State championship Monday night.

The Jackets were kept on defense from the opening whistle as the Patriots had more early shot attempts and Fort Mill struggled to hold possession.

The Patriots, the defending state champions, put Fort Mill sophomore keeper Emily Ambrose to work early. While she managed to stop shot after shot as Fort Mill’s last line of defense, J.L. Mann double teamed the ball handler whenever the Jackets regained possession and the Patriots defense kept Fort Mill from penetrating too deep into the box.

Josie Gillespie of J.L. Mann got a yellow card with about 18 minutes left in the first half for slamming Fort Mill’s Kimber Haley to the ground, but the Jackets could not convert on the ensuing penalty kick.

Fort Mill’s trouble controlling the ball continued and in the first half alone, the Patriots took 14 shots compared to just four for Fort Mill.

J.L. Mann came out in the second half and picked up right where it left off, getting a shot off in the first three minutes of play. The Patriots built on a 2-0 lead when Claudia Murphy scored on a cross to the middle in front of the goal with about 25 minutes left. It was the exact same play J.L. Mann scored on just five minutes earlier.

For the remainder of the game, every time J.L. Mann had the ball it would go down the right side of the field and try to set up that same cross to the middle, keeping the pressure on Fort Mill’s defense.

Fort Mill was able to get off several shots in the second half with the help of junior Meredith Christopher, but the Patriots keeper denied each one.

Turning point

Staying on the attack early in the second half, J.L. Mann picked up its second goal of the game on a cross from Caroline Conti, who scored the Patriots’ first goal, to Murphy to give the Patriots a 2-0 lead.

Critical

J.L. Mann finally got a shot past Ambrose with about eight minutes left in the first half to go up 1-0.

Overheard

Fort Mill head coach Chris Quinn said the team expected the shot onslaught from the Patriots and he felt like Ambrose did well in goal, despite the score.

“She survived the initial 10 minutes,” Quinn said.

“They are a good team. We had a plan to try and absorb their pressure and not make mistakes. We just got counter attacked. We just couldn’t convert on the few opportunities we had.”

This story was originally published May 10, 2016 at 9:41 AM with the headline "Fort Mill’s season ends in Upper State title match."