Last Thursday night, the Elkins High School girls soccer team took on Phillip Barbour in Grafton at McKinney Field to see who will go to Beckley for the 2022 West Virginia Girls Soccer State Tournament. Going into the game, both teams knew it was going to be a battle as they are not only the best teams in the region but in all of AA as Phillip Barbour was ranked 2nd in AA and Elkins ranked 4th.

The Lady Tigers got the first goal of the night from a free kick from Cutright in the 9th minute. Just a few minutes later, Phillip Barbour evened things up when a goal was scored by Sparks. Around the midway point of the first half, Elkins appeared to have scored a goal but it was disallowed, causing controversy. With about ten minutes left in the first half, Phillip Barbour took a 2-1 lead from a goal from Sparks. Phillip Barbour would take that lead into halftime.

Not too long into the second half, the Tigers were able to even things up at 2 a piece with a penalty kick by Doyle. The score remained tied for most of the second half until Sparks connected with her second goal of the night to give the Lady Colts a 3-2 lead. A couple minutes later Sparks got her second goal and gave Phillip Barbour a little insurance as they went up 4-2 and that would be the final score.

Elkins would finish the season with an amazing 15-3-2 record. Even though the Lady Tigers will lose six seniors, they wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon.