Mills River – Marianne Maxon leads West Henderson’s Lady Falcons to the Mountain Seven Conference with her prolific scoring.
Maxon tallied 27 goals and 10 assists in West’s first 11 games midway into the regular season. She is a sophomore forward.
The Lady Falcons can control a game at midfield, but are best when “playing wide open” on offense, head coach Brian Brewer said. He is the Falcon boys’ soccer coach since 2004, and in his second year also commandeering the Lady Falcons.
Maxon is on pace for 54 goals. That would snap the over two-decade old Lady Falcon single-season scoring mark of 47 goals. Lydia Vandenbergh (Jackson) before she transferred to Brevard, Brewer noted. Jackson, a 2002 BHS grad, played soccer for Clemson professionally and now coaches.
Taming Bears
West (10-1; 5-0 M7) surged alone into the 3A league’s first place position, breaking a tie by beating co-leader Pisgah (10-3; 4-1) 3-1 at home on April 6. Emma Chavez was the scoring hero. The junior midfielder scored all three goals in the second half. Chavez scored 14 goals and 11 assists, entering this week.
Freshmen also contributed to varsity scoring. “Striker” forward Sarah Hughes scored 6 goals and midfielder Lauren Clonch had 5. Sophomore defender Catherine Barton contributed 4 goals.
The Lady Falcons win by an average score of 5.5-0.5, thanks to stingy goalkeeping by senior Taylor Williams and her junior backup Tatum Brennan.
West beat 2A Hendersonville 3-1 at home March 7, then lost 2-1 to 4A power A.C. Reynolds (7-2-1). West’s biggest outputs were in beating East 9-0, Erwin 8-0 and Polk 7-0.
The Lady Falcons’ five home matches started with North Henderson on Wednesday, and continue with Enka on April 22, followed by East on April 25. Later in the month, Smoky Mountain on April 27 and then T.C. Roberson (9-2-1) on April 28 at 7 p.m.
Knights, Eagles
Entering this week, North Henderson (3-2-2; 2-2-1 M7) trailed third-place Tuscola by a game. NHHS Lady Knight’s leading scorers are junior defenders Paige Damoth with 8 goals and forward Hayley Forbes with 7.
NHHS won 3-0 at East Henderson (2-8; 0-4) on April 11. Robert McClelland coaches East. Ricardo Hernandez coaches the Lady Knights. They welcome Hendersonville May 9 at 7 p.m.
Lady Bearcats
HHS (12-3 overall) leads the new Mountain Foothills Conference with a 10-0 mark through Tuesday. Kayla Fadden is the head coach. Both Maggie Bish, a sophomore midfielder and senior forward Ali Garcia are near double digits in goals.
Junior goalkeeper Laura Shelton yields merely one goal per game on average as HHS outscored opponents by four goals to 1.2. HHS registered shutouts in 4 straight contests. Hendersonville and West both achieved shutouts in 6 of their first 10 victories.
The Lady Bearcats thrashed MFC foes R-S Central 8-0 then Chase 9-0, matching West’s best scoring barrages. HHS losses are to West, 6-0 at T.C. Roberson (9-2-1) in the opener and 2-0 at Enka (7-4-1). Hendersonville hosts East Rutherford April 25 at 6 p.m.
MAC Teams, Owen
Roberson (6-0) has a healthy early MAC lead, with Reynolds and Asheville both next at 3-1-1. AHS and ACR tied 2-2 after two overtimes at Reynolds March 28.
TCR beat both of them. Roberson won 4-0 at AHS March 30. A huge 2-1 home triumph over ACR was April 6. Goals were by Rams Kayla Graham and Kelly Gordon, and Iowa signee Halle Skibo of Reynolds.
Roberson, coached by Josh Martin, hosts AHS on May 2. Patrick Gladys coaches Reynolds. The much-awaited TC-AC rematch is May 9 at Reynolds.
Mike Flowe coaches Asheville (8-1-2), which hosts Enka (3-2 MAC) March 20. Jane Cannon coaches Enka. North Buncombe and McDowell are 1-4 and Erwin 0-5 in the league.
Owen (4-5-1), coached by David Fiest, is second in the Western Highlands Conference with a 3-1 mark. Madison (9-2-1) leads at 5-0.