LEXINGTON — Top-seeded Lady Lex took care of business Wednesday night.
Three different players scored goals and Lexington cruised to a 3-1 win over No. 5 Ashland in a Division III district semifinal match at Lexington.
Lady Lex (10-7-2) will play fourth-seeded Ontario for a district title at noon Saturday at Lexington. The Warriors blanked Norwalk 4-0 in Wednesday’s early game.
“It’s just a team effort,” Lexington coach Buck Morton said. “They just grinded it out and that’s just kind of who we are.
“To put up three (goals) is impressive. For us it’s big.”
Lexington took a 1-0 lead in the 13th minute when the speedy Emily Thomas got behind the defense down the far sideline. Ashland keeper Sadie Mills left her line and deflected Thomas’ shot, but the ball came to rest at the foot of Lexington’s Ellie Mayer and the senior forward tucked it into the empty net.
“Emily has got that speed and she creates havoc,” Morton said. “Whether it’s her finishing them or, just like on the first one, to be able to get in deep and make that scramble.
“You don’t see a ton of glamorous goals in these games. What you see is people being in the right place at the right time.”
Lady Lex took a 2-0 lead when the Arrows were unable to clear a ball in the box and Lexington’s Zoe Borowicz drilled it past Mills.
Lexington extended the lead to 3-0 early in the second half when Audrey Wendling collected a crossing pass from Thomas and hit it into the top of the net.
“That was our goal. We said we were going to score the first goal of the first half and the first goal of the second half,” Morton said. “That’s puts you in a good (place).”
Ashland (7-8-4) scored its goal with 11:53 remaining in the second half off a set piece. Adi Helbert headed in a corner kick from Maddie Beattie to make it 3-1.
“Our girls are resilient. They could have quit, but they didn’t,” Ashland coach Lee Hunt said. “I told the girls some times the bounces go your way and some times they don’t. The bounces didn’t go our way tonight.”