Lady Wildcats can’t get past Bearden
Oak Ridge’s Noel Norstedt heads off Bearden’s Jayla Blue last Thursday in the Region 2-AAA Tournament. (photo:Ken Leinart )
In his first season, he replaced several players as the team was hit hard by graduation.
And the Lady Wildcats won five games. From there, ORHS grew and steadily improved.
Green knew that the 2023 campaign would be his last at Oak Ridge as he was tapped to begin a women’s soccer team at Roane State Community College, which will begin play next fall.
Green guided the Lady Wildcats to a share of the District 3-AAA regular-season championship. Oak Ridge shared the title with Knox Central and Powell, losing only to the Lady Panthers in the regular season. Via a tie-breaker, the Lady Wildcats were declared the second seed in the postseason tournament.
But the postseason and Green’s tenure didn’t end the way he or the Lady Wildcats would’ve liked.
Oak Ridge, which won 14 games in 2023, lost the district championship match in a penalty kicks shootout.
Thanks to a late goal by Lilah Kim, Oak Ridge took a 1-0 lead, only to see Central tie the match with 13 seconds remaining in regulation. The two teams didn’t score in extra time, but Central won the shootout.
The Lady Wildcats, however, reached the Region 2-AAA Tournament for the first time since 2019.
But things didn’t go well as Oak Ridge lost, 9-0, to two-time defending Class AAA and nationally-ranked Bearden on Tuesday, Oct. 17, at Turner-Allender Field in West Knoxville. The match was called in the 61st minute due to the TSSAA mercy rule, but Green was proud of his team for its accomplishments this season.
“It didn’t end the way we wanted it to,” he said. “But I’m proud of the girls. They’ve worked extremely hard and they’ve come a long way.
“We won 14 games this year, and this is the first time in a long time that we’ve made it to the region. When I first got here, I had to replace eight seniors and we won five games that year.”