Suffolk News-Herald

Prior to Wednesday afternoon’s field hockey game between Lakeland and Hickory, there were two unbeaten teams in the Southeastern District, now there’s only one.

Lakeland (9-1-0, 5-0-0) handily defeated Hickory 4-0, putting themselves solely in first place in the district.

The Lady Cavaliers began strongly, controlling play and earning repeated penalty corners.

It took 16 minutes for the penalty corners to pay off.

On the seventh corner, and already the 11th shot of the game, Katelyn Smither converted off an assist from Ashley McCord.

McCord took the corner and Smither hit a hard shot which took one high hop over the keeper’s shoulder into the back of the cage.

Lakeland kept their momentum going and doubled their lead just four minutes later.

This time Nicole Klee scored and Lindsay Cutchins had the assist.

Cutchins assisted again three minutes later to make the score 3-0.

Cutchins’ long centering pass across the scoring circle found McCord alone at the far post and McCord put the shot away.

Smither scored her second goal of the game four minutes into the second half.

Klee dribbled the ball up through midfield on a counterattack, then passed to Smither about eight yards from the goal.

Smither turned toward goal and shot in one motion, giving Lakeland a 4-0 lead.

Lakeland outshot Hickory 28-4 for the game and held a 17-4 advantage on penalty corners.

Lakeland now looks forward to facing region #1 Maury on Friday.

&uot;It’ll be a good test,&uot; Lakeland head coach Tara Worley said of Maury. &uot;If we play well it should be a very good game.&uot;