Anastasia Wellington, a prolific goal scorer during her career at Tullahoma High School, scored five goals in two games over the weekend to lead the Motlow State Lady Bucks to a pair of shutout wins on the road. The Lady Bucks, now 2-2-1 on the season, host Meridian (MS) Community College on Friday at 5 p.m. at Lincoln County High School in Fayetteville. [Motlow State photo]
Motlow (2-2-1) traveled to St. George’s High School in Memphis and beat Southwest Tennessee Community College 4-0 last Friday behind a three-goal hat trick from Tullahoma’s Anastasia Wellington. Monday, Motlow shut out Hiwassee College 7-0 in Madisonville, with six different players scoring goals for the Lady Bucks.
“We’ve asked our players to set the tone of the match from the first whistle, and in both these wins you could see our attacking intent from the outset,” said Motlow Head Coach Andy Lyon. “Anastasia is beginning to regain her confidence and sharpness, and she will only get better from here. The fact that we have had goals scored by various players is extremely encouraging.”
The Lady Bucks will play host to Meridian on Friday at Lincoln County High School in Fayetteville, with kickoff scheduled for 5 p.m. The game is a rematch of Motlow’s season opener, when they went to Meridian and played to a 1-1 tie Aug. 25.
“I anticipate another close contest against Meridian,” continued Lyon. “When we went down there for our season opener, they were solid overall as a team and didn’t provide us any easy opportunities. I think the Lady Bucks and the Eagles are both considerably better teams than they were in August. We have had great support from our area communities and we hope to have a big crowd in Fayetteville on Friday.”
Lyon’s squad dominated the action from the beginning in Memphis, but couldn’t put the ball in the goal in the first half despite outshooting the home team 17-0. Motlow’s fortunes changed in the second half though, with Wellington getting things started with her first goal coming at the 51 minute mark on an assist from Paige Loveless.
Callie Simmons, a freshman from Smyrna, increased the lead to 2-0 with a goal at the 58 minutes mark, with the assist coming from Rebekah Duross. With her confidence soaring, Wellington closed out the scoring, and the hat trick, with a pair of goals in the final two minutes, the second one aided by a Bethany Porter assist.
Motlow finished with 38 shots on goal, while Southwest TN had only one. Lena Alakabi played the first half as goalkeeper, and Manchester’s Ali Shelton played the second half and recorded Motlow’s lone save.
Monday afternoon in Madisonville, Wellington picked up where she had left off against Southwest, scoring her first goal at the three minute mark and her second, with an assist from Keely Smith, two minutes later. Just five minutes into the contest, the Lady Bucks led 2-0.
Five different players scored the next five goals for Motlow, with Bailee Walls scoring at the 25 minute mark with an assist from Wellington, and Megan Blumhoefer scoring on a penalty kick at the 43 minute mark, assisted by Tyler Feaster. The Lady Bucks went into halftime leading Hiwassee 4-0.
Feaster notched her second goal of the season at the 51 minute mark, with the assist from Blumhoefer, and Loveless followed that two minutes later with a goal, also assisted by Blumhoefer. Shelby Grow, who scored her only goal of the year in the opener against Meridian, finished off Monday’s scoring with a goal at the 63 minute mark, assisted by both Feaster and Walls.
The Lady Bucks have now outscored their last two opponents 11-0, and on the season Motlow holds a 13-5 advantage. Seven different players have scored for the Lady Bucks, with Wellington leading the way with five and Tyler Feaster and Grow with two each. Motlow’s defense has been stellar, allowing an average of only one goal per game. Alakabi, Shelton and Emily Bryant have each spent time in the goalkeeper position.
Visit the official website of Motlow Athletics at MotlowSports.com for rosters, schedules, stats and more. Interact with Motlow Athletics on social media at MotlowSports.
