BY MYERS PIERCE

The Lady Knights (9-5-1) battled to a 4-1 victory Friday night in an old rivalry game against the Decatur Bulldogs (6-5-1) on March 29. The Lady Knights brought the pressure early with two shots on goal in the first two minutes and were seconds away from scoring at the five-minute mark when an offside penalty was called. Grady earned the first score after Sophie Maschinot crossed Emily Ferris’ header to Perri Bonner who scored the goal at 29:44 on the clock.

Bonner barely missed an open shot a few minutes later wide right. The Bulldogs responded to this pressure with a Sydney Johnson goal with 16:41 left in the first half. Decatur almost took the lead a minute later with a wide open shot when the Knight’s defense was caught out of position, but thanks to senior goalie Emma Lee, the shot was stopped. After a few more threatening pushes by each team, the halftime score was 1-1.

The Knights started the half off with a goal by Perri Bonner on a free kick to gain the lead in this highly contested battle. The Bulldogs responded with a strong push that ended with a shot off of the goal post.

The Knights took control of the game when Ferris scored off Nally Kinnane’s cross to make the score 3-1 at 17:51. Grady scored again at 8:39 on a header from Kinnane. The Knights fell back on defense after that with a three-goal lead, killing the clock and putting the finishing touches on a 4-1 victory.

“This was a really good game,” said Anya, the Bulldog team manager. “We played a good first half, we just didnt finish the game.”

The Lady Knights won their next game, on April 13 against Arabia Mountain 11-0, and have now qualified for the state tournament.