LEXINGTON — The Arrows have returned to their winning ways.
Ashland scored a pair of goals in the opening 10 minutes and cruised to a 3-0 win over Lexington in Ohio Cardinal Conference action Thursday at Lexington High School.
The Arrows (7-1, 3-1) suffered their lone loss a week ago, falling 3-0 to Madison.
“The girls put that loss behind them pretty quickly,” Ashland coach Trent Heckman said. “We wanted to learn from it, but we didn’t want to dwell on it.”
Junior forward Katie McQuillen gave Ashland a quick 1-0 lead when she scored with 35:59 remaining in the first half. Less than five minutes later, defender Taryn Wachtel gave the Arrows a 2-0 lead.
“Any time you can score an early goal, it takes some of the pressure off,” Heckman said. “The girls were moving the ball around and they found the back of the net twice quick.”
Lexington (4-4-1) never recovered.
“When you get in a position when you’re down 2-0, it takes all the pressure off them,” Lady Lex coach Buck Morton said. “All Ashland has to do is possess the ball and be patient.
“We knew Ashland was a quality team. They are state-ranked for a reason.”
The Arrows, who were ranked eighth in Division I in this week’s Ohio Scholastic Soccer Coaches Association state poll, scored an insurance goal with 29:14 remaining in the second half. Senior forward Grace Hosse did the honors on an assist from classmate Ellie Harlan.
“I feel like we kind of let up in the second part of the first half,” Heckman said. “We came back out for the second half and locked it back down.”
Lady Lex has dropped three of their past four matches and been shut out twice in a row.
“We need to get a couple of girls healthy. That will help us a little bit,” Morton said. “We’ve got to get to work. We need to find ways to possess the ball a little better and create some scoring chances.”
