By Spencer Spilman
The Hays Lady Rebels soccer team made quick work Friday of the Akins Lady Eagles by easily winning 3-0.
Hays dominated the game from the opening kickoff and could have added to the score.
The Lady Rebels took 20 shots in the first half, 13 of those were on-goal.
Hays head girls soccer coach Brent Holcomb was happy with the way his team started the game.
“Our game plan was to play with a lot of urgency and energy and I felt like they did that,” Holcomb said.
Akins goalkeeper made 18 saves, but the Lady Rebels put so many shots on-goal that she couldn’t stop them all.
Hays got the scoring started just seven minutes into the contest. Senior Alexis Cowher sent a pass to Isa Hernandez and she finished the play by putting the ball in the back of the net to take a 1-0 lead.
Hernandez returned the favor to Cowher four minutes later. She sent a pass that left Cowher all alone and she did the rest from there. The Lady Rebels took a 2-0 lead just 11 minutes into the game.
The Lady Rebels continued to put shots in the net, but couldn’t get them past the keeper until the end of the second half.
Akins put one shot on-goal, which was saved easily. Its offense was unable to maintain possession of the ball, leaving Hays free to go on the attack for nearly the entire game.
The game got a little chippy in the final 10 minutes as both teams were given a yellow card for back-to-back hard fouls.
Once things calmed down, the Lady Rebels went for the final nail in the coffin in the final minute of the game. Cowher made a long run with the ball and after dodging a few Akins defenders, put the ball in the back of the net for her second goal of the game.
Hays finished by taking 35 total shots, 20 of those on-goal. They also racked up eight corner kicks. Holcomb felt like the game could’ve been more high scoring.
“I’ve got to give credit to Akins. Their defense goes to the ball,” he said. “We also didn’t quite get the shots we wanted. We got a lot of power on the shots, but just didn’t get the placement we would’ve liked.”
