Kayla Hoohuli, 10, of the Lady Dutch is about to get the ball past a Clearfield defender to get a shot at the goal during yesterday’s District 9-AAA semifinal game played at the SMAHS field. Hoohuli scored the lone goal for the Lady Dutch.

By JIM MULCAHY
Daily Press staff

The St. Marys Area Lady Dutch soccer team was eliminated from the District 9 Class AAA playoffs Monday afternoon as they lost a 3-1 semifinal match to the Clearfield Lady Bisons at the SMAHS soccer field.

Clearfield will meet DuBois Area on Wednesday night at Brockway for the Class AAA crown. DuBois defeated Bradford last night in the other semifinal match.

The Lady Dutch and the Lady Bisons battled in the middle of the field in the opening minutes of the contest. The Lady Dutch took the first shot of the match with approximately 36 minutes to go in the first half.

St. Marys kept the pressure on the Clearfield defense for most of the first 20 minutes of the first half.

The Lady Dutch got on the board with 24:50 left when Kayla Hoohuli’s shot gave St. Marys the 1-0 lead.

The teams continued to battle primarily in the middle of the field until with 8:35 left in the first half, Clearfield tied the match at 1-1.

Neither team scored the remainder of the first half. Both teams had seven shots on goal in the first half. Each keeper came up with five saves while Clearfield had three corner kicks.

Clearfield opened the second half by putting the pressure on the St. Marys defense. With about six minutes gone in the second half, the Lady Bisons had two shots that just missed their mark. Both shots just missed the side of the goal.

With 32:41 left in the game, Clearfield took a 2-1 lead.

Clearfield kept the pressure on the St. Marys defense. The Lady Bisons took a 3-1 lead with 20:38 left in the game.

St. Marys was unable to take advantage of two corner kicks by Brittany Orr around the 18 minute mark. A line drive shot by Clearfield just missed the top of the goal. Aul came up with a save as she dove to send the ball away from the net with seven minutes to go in the game.

Neither team could score the remainder of the game as Clearfield held on for the 3-1 win.

Clearfield outshot St. Marys 15-6 in the second half. Each team had two corner kicks.

“Overall I was happy to compete in a District game against a great team,” said St. Marys coach Kelly Carr.

“The loss was a little disappointing, especially since we scored the first goal,” said the coach.

“Overall, I was happy with the season and looking forward to an even better season next year,” added coach Carr.

Senior members of the Lady Dutch team are Kaitlyn Gaton, Rachel Haines, Emily Hathorn, Beth Lyons, Miranda Meyer and Kelsey Swartz.

The Lady Dutch finished the season with a 9-10 record.