Ontario stops Lexington to reach district final

LEXINGTON — It took less than a minute for Ontario to seize momentum Wednesday evening at Lexington High School.

The third-seeded Warriors scored a pair of goals just 57 seconds apart and held on for a 3-1 win over No. 2 Lexington in the Division II district semifinals.

Ontario (13-3-2) trailed 1-0 deep into the first half before Kyla Spencer scored the equalizer on a header off a Riley Kinney corner kick with 11:23 to play.

Ontario fans had barely finished celebrating when Kinney scored from just outside the 18 to make it 2-1 with 10:29 remaining before halftime.

“We knew if we could at least get one, they would start second-guessing themselves,” Ontario coach Larry Atkinson said. “Our kids got more confidence and continued to play hard.”

Ontario’s quick strikes put Lexington on its heels.

“It was big to give up,” Lady Lex coach Buck Morton said. “When you’re up 1-0, we were feeling pretty good about ourselves. We scored and I thought maybe we would settle in.

“When they (score the back-to-back goals), we were at halftime and I was trying to convince our girls this is a one-goal game. We can turn it around in 10 seconds.

“They did a nice job of not letting us get any space going forward. They put the clamps on Lacee (Bethea) and Lauren (Alexander). We rely on speed and they took it away.”

Bethea spotted Lady Lex to a 1-0 lead when she scored with 27:45 remaining in the first half. Ontario’s Alaina Reed added an insurance goal with 23:51 remaining in the second half.

The loss ended the careers of seven Lexington seniors.

“That’s the bummer of this whole thing,” Morton said. “They’re done and it’s so abrupt. You don’t feel like it’s going to happen even though it’s going to happen within the next two weeks.

“Coming in my first year, the bulk of our roster was sophomores and now they’re seniors.

“I’m proud of our girls. They’re great kids and they worked hard all year. It will be easy to talk about at the banquet, but it’s kind of tough now.”

Ontario will play Madison for the district title Saturday at 2 p.m. at Lexington. The Rams blanked Clear Fork 4-0 in the early game Wednesday at Lexington.

“They’re so athletic. They’re so fast,” Atkinson said. “We’re just going to try to compete.”