The Lady Knights have come into their own. Here, at the end of the ’09 season, the Tyler Consolidated Lady Knight soccer team is playing better than they have all year, according to head coach Cliff Warner.

“I’m so proud of them,”he said. “They have worked so hard and have come so far since the beginning of the season.”

Though the team has only one win so far on the year to show for their effort, they’ve been competitive in the majority of their games. “We’ve had at least five of 11 games that could have went either way,” the coach said.

“Five games that could easily have been in our win column. It just wasn’t meant to be.”

Last week the Lady Knights played host to the Golden Bears of Oak Glen, another close game for the Silver and Black. Unfortunately, Oak Glen took the win by a narrow margin, 5-4.

The home team scored two goals within the first four minutes of the game and forced the Bears to keep at mid-field or neutral territory for the duration of the first half.

“The way our girls played in the first half of this game is the best that we have ever played as a team,” Warner said.

“We were on our game, good kicks, good passes, the works.”

In the second half of the game, Oak Glen stepped up their play and evened up the score, and before game’s end, went ahead 5-4 to take the win.

“It was a heart breaker,” Warner said. “We played very well, and I was very pleased with the kids. They deserved the win, but it just didn’t happen.”

Senior Haley Acree scored a hat-trick for the Silver with two goals and a corner kick. Nichole Stinestring added the other goal; and Acree and Marley Snider each had an assist. Goal keeper Emily Wildman had 24 saves in the game.

“Haley was certainly on her game,” said the coach. “She made some excellent plays, as did Emily Wildman, our keeper. She made some phenomenal saves.”

“Maddie Schlabowskie is the heart of our defense, and she led us well on the field. I just can’t say enough about how well these girls played. They’ve come so far this year and really showed their abilities in this game.”

The Lady Knights will have the next week off, and will play their next game at South Harrison on Oct. 6.