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Boyd wins match, district title
BY Kevin Hageland, khageland@acnpapers.com
Tuesday night was McKinney Boyd’s Senior Night and the Lady Broncos gave their fans what they have seen many times before – a win and a district title.
This one came courtesy of a 3-2 victory over Allen.
“It’s always our goal to be the district champions,” said Jimmie Lankford, Boyd head coach. “And going through this district undefeated is big. I know we had some ties, but this is a tough district.”
“Obviously we want to win every game we play,” Lankford said. “But after what happened in the first game against Allen (a 3-3 draw) we wanted to come out and show that we were the better team tonight.”
Boyd did that emphatically in the first half.
To say the Lady Broncos dominated the entire pitch in the first 40 minutes wouldn’t be fair as Allen had trouble pushing the ball to the Boyd side of the field.
“Our (playoff) spot was already set up,” said Karen Hunnicutt, Allen head coach, “so I don’t think we were overly focused in the first half. We were too complacent.”
It showed as Boyd spent the majority of the half in the offensive third.
That didn’t lead to a plethora of goals though as Allen sophomore keeper Shannon Moroney was up to the task early.
“I thought Shannon played very well tonight,” Hunnicutt said.
Moroney made multiple saves, but was also bailed out by her defense a time or two. Sophomore Victoria Spears was continually called upon to clear the ball out of the Allen zone and senior Katie Pence pushed a ball off the goal line to prevent the first Boyd score of the evening.
“Give Allen credit there,” Lankford said. “Their keeper played very well and a few of the defenders were able to put pressure on us when we had the ball.”
That pressure kept the game scoreless through 27 minutes, but not past the 28th as an Allen miscue led to a close indirect kick. Boyd senior Emily Reid quickly passed the ball to junior Kelley Monogue, who buried the shot from 16 yards.
That gave Boyd a 1-0 advantage that would remain intact at the break.
But as Boyd scored its first goal in the 28th minute, Allen responded with its first goal with 28 minutes remaining.
Sophomore Katlyn Nimtz made a run down the right side, kept the ball inbounds and dished it off to senior Jennifer Clark, who fired a one-timer past Boyd sophomore Kara Dugall for the equalizer.
“I wasn’t displeased with the way anyone played tonight,” Hunnicutt said. “But we did see a few mistakes in the first half; we were able to correct them and I thought we were much more competitive in the second half.”
The match remained tied for a scant 124 seconds as the Reid-Monogue connection led to another goal and 2-1 Boyd advantage.
Monogue would complete her hat trick with 3:12 remaining as she controlled the ball inside the Allen box, shook off a defender and tickled the twine to make it 3-1.
“I thought we looked more like ourselves tonight,” Lankford said, “than we have in a long time.”
The Lady Eagles would, however, provide a sweat as Spears fired a free kick in from 44 yards out and connected with senior Bailey Calton, who punched it in with 1:22 remaining to pull Allen within 3-2.
“We gave Boyd a bit of a scare there,” Hunnicutt said. “And that’s one of the things about this team, they just don’t quit.”
Allen pushed feverishly in the final 82 seconds, but couldn’t knot things up as Boyd finished out its district championship run with a 3-2 victory.
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