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ELIZABETHTOWN – Sophmore Patience Ward scored two goals as East Bladen clinched the Three Rivers Conference championship with a 4-0 victory over Red Springs Tuesday night.

Coach Jay Raynor’s Lady Eagles improved to 13-0 in the league and 16-0 overall with the win.

“This wrapped up our first conference championship with the girls program,” said Coach Raynor. “I’m extremely happy for my girls. They worked hard from day one and we talked about this day…. it was a matter not of If we were going to win it but When we were going to win it.

“Our captains and squad leaders made this happen,” continued Raynor. “These girls do a tremendous job. The work and energy they put in allows me just to coach. They handle a lot of the details amongst the program. Proud of all this group and happy for them! A young group with an extremely bright future.”

Ward turned an assist from senior Hannah Devane into a goal in the fourth minute. “Patience beat the backline easily and put the shot past the keeper,” stated Raynor.

Eighteen minutes later Ward converted another pass from Devane into her second goal.

“We talked at halftime about moving more and making better decisions,” said Raynor. “We looked sluggish (in the first half) and weren’t moving the ball. I thought we did better at moving off the ball and creating chances (in the second half). We played better in the second half.”

A pair of freshmen worked together for the third Lady Eagle goal. Katie Evans took a feed from Kenia Medina and fired it past the keeper in the 55th minute.

Devane scored the final East Bladen goal in the 75th minute as she took a pass from Evans and looped a shot over the keeper’s head.

East Bladen outshot Red Springs 24-1. Goalie Ting Lin had no saves on the night.

“I was really impressed with the play of Ting, Sarah Johnson, Izzy (Smith), and Cybil (Campbell) tonight,” stated Coach Raynor. “They all did well for us in the back tonight. Katie and Kenia had two amazing halves tonight. They were both flying around and making plays in the second half.”

“Patience killed it and Hannah came into the midfield and helped us win the ball more than what we started out doing,” added Raynor. “We have been waiting for Patience to start putting some more shots on goal and she did that. She worked and dominated the left side of their backline. Lily Lin did a tremendous job in midfield as well as Ashton (Magby) and Gracyn (Martin).

East Bladen will conclude regular season play Friday night when they host West Bladen.