Lady Rebels knock off Oak Mountain, advance to final

HUNTSVILLE — The Vestavia Hills High School girls soccer team will go for its second straight AHSAA Class 7A girls soccer championship, after the Rebels blanked 2015 champion Oak Mountain 2-0 in Friday’s semifinal match.

Caroline Silvio put the Rebels on the board with a goal four minutes after the opening kickoff, and Taylor Korn scored the other goal in the 21st minute, on a shot from about 20 yards away.

“We were putting high pressure on their backs. We put some brilliant finishing moves on our attacks,” Vestavia Hills coach Brigid Littleton said.

From that point on, the match was a back-and-forth physical struggle, with four yellow cards issued by the referee in the second half. One of those went to Eagles coach Chris Blight, who argued a bit too much for the referee’s liking after Blight complained that one of his players was fouled inside the penalty area, which would result in a penalty kick.

Oak Mountain held the possession advantage in the second half, but couldn’t convert in six shots. Only one of those shots was on goal, which goalkeeper Anna Woodson stopped for one of her two saves of the match.

“We had great chances, but we didn’t take advantage of them in that half,” Blight said. “They really high-pressured us in the first half, and we made a couple of mistakes. I really thought we were the better team on the day, but we were bit unlucky.”

Vestavia Hills (19-1-3) will attempt to win its fifth state championship Saturday at noon. They face McGill-Toolen Catholic, which defeated Fairhope 5-1 in the other semifinal. In a regular-season match, the Rebels beat the Yellow Jackets 2-1.

The Eagles finish the season with a 21-3-2 record.