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The Lafayette Christian girl’s soccer team kept up its undefeated start to the season with a 2-1 victory over Harvester Christian on Tuesday. 

“This was tough, it was definitely the hardest game we’ve played this year,” senior Julia Nehring said.

The Cougars were powered to victory by two first-half goals from set pieces. The first came just 17 minutes into the game when senior Julia Nehring stepped up and dispatched a penalty kick. 

“I’ve done it before and coach asked me to step up and take it and when I looked at the goalkeeper I was feeling confident,” Nehring said. 

The second would come with just three minutes left in the first half as Maddie Knight’s free kick trickled out of the goalkeeper’s grasp and rolled into the back of the net.

“I tried to find the angle, said a prayer and kicked it,” Knight said, laughing. 

The Cougars were able to keep their early lead in large part due to two huge saves from goalkeeper Chloe Firth. 

The first save came off her fingertips and cannoned off the crossbar with the Cougars leading 1-0 23 minutes into the game.

“We love having Chloe in goal,” Knight said. “She isn’t scared to come out and get the ball.”

“We lost a really good senior in goal from last year in Carmen Bridges and you’d think we would take a step back there, but Chloe has stepped in and she’s been so confident back there,” Nehring added. 

Her second massive save came with just seven minutes left in the first half when a Harvester player was through on goal. Just four minutes later Lafayette Christian would double its lead courtesy of Knight’s goal. 

The second half was largely a stalemate between the two teams until Harvester scored on a long-range shot with just under five minutes in the game to cut the Cougar lead in half. 

The closest chance of the second half for Lafayette Christian came when Fionah Prajes crossed the ball to the top of the box as Paisley Jackson took a shot that went just over the bar 14 minutes into the second half.

Lafayette Christian moved to 4-0 on the season. The Cougars will be back in action on Friday when they travel to Trinity Christian of Opelika. 

“We are trying to win state,” Nehring said. “This is a good start, but we have to keep it up.”