Highlands Girls Varsity Soccer team advances to State Finals against Sacred Heart at 6 p.m. Saturday night at Frederick Douglass Stadium, in Lexington. Last night in the girls Semi-Finals game, they rolled over Bethlehem County in a final score of 3-0, advancing them to the finals where they haven’t been since 2008.

The birds started off with tremendous intensity and energy, along with the high hopes of advancing.

Junior Maria Broering was able to knock in two of their three goals, while Senior Lindsey Meyer was able to finish the Eagles off with her final goal. The girls were able to keep this lead, and keep possession of the ball for majority of the game. In the end, crushing the other Eagles hopes of seeing a spot in the Finals.

Meanwhile, the Birds were beginning to tire down the other team, forcing them to lose their momentum and back down. Junior and Varsity Girls goalkeeper, Maggie Hinegardner, had a massive shutout with 6 saves; not letting any balls pass her for the duration of 80 minutes.

Senior Hannah Hartman felt the team played, “extremely well.” She further mentioned the team, “did what we needed to do in order to advance ourselves to the finals.”

Therefore, “On Saturday, we will need to bring it like never before, in order to end our season with a bang.” She feels that this is it, and the team is ready for this. At this point she feels as if they have nothing left to lose, but still need to bring all they got.

Girls Coach Nina Kearns exclaimed how the girls played well considering the weather conditions, “While it made it hard to play our style of game, they persevered, and to be able to put in that first goal in the net, therefore being able overcome the rest of the game.”

“It was really something special.”

She pointed out the girls have played their up-and-coming rivals twice already. Thus, they have down the other team’s game play to a T. While they may have lost both games against them, they have “good knowledge of what is to come and with that good knowledge, comes good execution.” All in all, Coach Kearns, along with the rest of her staff, wants the girls to be, “on their A-game.”

The Birds hope to continue their winning streak on Saturday night in Lexington.