Highlands Girls Soccer Drubbed by St. Henry

By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM

Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter

The Highlands Girls Soccer Team Looks On As Coach Tommy Kearns Surveys The Field

The final score did not look good for the hosts.

But there were just two things that separated the women’s soccer teams in the St. Henry Crusaders’ 5-0 win over the Highlands Bluebirds on Monday at Tower Park.

That is Libby Leedom and the abilities to finish shots.

Leedom, the 5-foot-8-inch senior midfielder/forward, turned in a hat trick with three goals and an assist in the win. Leedom, a University of Dayton commit, scored 23 goals and had 13 assists last year and helped the Crusaders to the 2010 state championship. Highlands tried many things against Leedom out of its 4-4-2 (defender-midfielder-forward) attack.

“She is the front-runner for (Kentucky) Ms. Soccer for a reason,” Highlands head coach Tommy Kearns said of Leedom. “She’s an outstanding player. We had a game plan and she fought through it. She’s just very difficult to stop.”

St. Henry outshot Highlands, 10-5 and converted 50 percent of the shots. Crusader goalkeeper Morgan Potts turned back all five Bluebird shots.

In the other goal, Sara Owen played the first half for Highlands (1-1 overall) and made two saves. Senior Jesse Daley took over in the second half and made three saves.

St. Henry improved to 2-1 with the win. Crusader head coach Steve Lorenz told his girls this marked the first time he’d ever won at Tower Park as a head coach. Prior to coming to St. Henry, Lorenz spent four seasons as the head coach at Boone County.

Leedom scored her first two goals with 29:19 and 5:46 left in the first half. Teammate Jenna Litzler scored her first of two goals with less than two remaining in the half. Leedom made the hat trick with 27:17 left in the game and Litzler scored her second with 21:05 left in the half.

“We’re younger than we’ve been in about four or five years” Lorenz said. “I’ve got about six sophomores and a freshman on the roster. (Leedom) gives us a wider margin for error early in the season so they get a chance to grow.”

Highlands had plenty of chances to avert the shutout in the game’s final 20 minutes. Allyson Bridewell hit one off the top of the crossbar with 19:06 remaining. Brooklynn Rivers had a big shot deflected wide by Potts with 14:40 left in the game and had another one go off the crossbar with 3:26 left in the game.

St. Henry had nine free kicks to three for Highlands. Only one yellow card came in the game. It was against Highlands.

“If any of those (shots) go in, it helps us on the score line,” Kearns said. “We created scoring opportunities. It’s just that none of them went into the back of the net. Credit their keeper (Potts). She made some excellent saves. She was definitely a difference-maker for them.”

Highlands then continues its tough week back at Tower Park against Lexington Catholic at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. The Lady Knights are 1-1-2 with a 4-2 loss to Notre Dame on Saturday.