MADISON TOWNSHIP — For the first time in 15 years, Lady Lex will hang an Ohio Cardinal Conference girls soccer championship banner.
Emily Thomas made sure of it.
A senior forward, Thomas scored a penalty kick goal in the 10th minute and the Lexington defense made it stand up in a 1-0 win over Madison at STARTEK Stadium.
The title is the first for Lexington (8-7-1, 6-0-0) since 2009 — when Thomas was 3 years old.
“Oh my gosh,” a surprised Thomas said when informed of Lexington’s championship drought. “That was definitely one of our goals, to win this. We knew that it was going to be tough.”
Veteran Lexington coach Buck Morton, who took over the girls program in 2017 after a successful stint as the boys coach, wasn’t quite sure when Lady Lex’s last championship season was.
“I know it wasn’t in the last eight years. That I can confirm,” Morton said. “It’s pretty amazing.”
Thomas scored the match’s only goal with 30:21 remaining in the first half after being fouled in the box. Her penalty kick evaded Madison keeper Avah Newsome and nestled into the back of the net.
“She new exactly where I was going, but she was a little late,” Thomas said.
The single goal was more than enough for Lady Lex keeper Claire Hammer. The shutout was the fifth clean sheet of the season for Hammer and fourth in OCC play.
“Our goal was to try to keep a zero on the board,” Morton said. “Claire did a great job back there. Our defense did a great job of keeping it in front of us.”
Lexington defenders Maggie Arnett, Sylvia Secrist, Ruthie Togliatti and Carliann Hughes never left the pitch Thursday evening. The quartet limited Madison’s scoring opportunities and made things easy on Hammer.
“I didn’t take them out the whole game,” Morton said. “Eighty minutes of pretty much constant pressure. They did amazing.”
Madison (9-4-1, 4-1-1) was in search of its fifth straight conference crown. As has been the case all season, the Rams had a hard time creating scoring chances.
“This is what we are and what we have been all season,” Madison coach Zac Huff said. “We’ve struggled to score. It’s hard to score if you don’t shoot the ball.
“We were between the 18 and 25 yard line and we would pass six times and nobody would shoot the ball. At the end of the day you have to have shots.”
Still, Morton knew his team would have its hands full.
“Zac does an amazing job of having his girls ready to play hard in every situation,” Morton said. “They play such competitive games all the time. I look at their scores against teams that are really good and I’m like, ‘How does he do that all the time?’ ”
Lexington’s championship was well-deserved, Huff said.
“Kudos to them. They came out and wanted it more than we did on our home turf,” Huff said. “Congratulations to Buck and his team.”