A tiebreaking goal seemed evident for the West Lauderdale girls soccer team.

As a plethora of second-half shots narrowly missed their marks, were blocked by Madison Central’s goalkeeper or ricocheted off the goal posts, the Lady Knights weren’t going to let up until they scored, or the final whistle sounded.

When the latter finally came, their 1-1 stalemate with their 6A opponent remained.

After undefeated Madison Central scored in the opening five minutes of Tuesday night’s game, hosted at Meridian Community College, West Lauderdale answered later in the first half to equalize the contest, but failed to get one of its 20 second-half shots in the goal. 

The Lady Knights finished with 27 shots, 14 of them on goal.

“Moving forward, we’ll finish some of those,” West Lauderdale head coach Alex George said. “I think it’s still early, so we’ll work some of those out, but I can’t be more proud of a 4A team from Collinsville, Mississippi.”

The Lady Jaguars got off to a quick lead when senior Savannah Turner took a deep, floating shot that was misread by the Lady Knights’ freshman goalie and sailed over her head for the score. 

It was the first of just two shots for Madison Central (3-0-3) all game, and the second goal on West Lauderdale this season.

“She hit that from probably 45 yards, and I think it was more or less a cross,” George said. “It just hung to the moon, and it was just hard to judge. I told my keeper that would’ve been hard for anybody.”

West Lauderdale (5-1-1) struggled to get organized on offense early in the first half, but leveled the match with 13 minutes left when senior Anna Claire Nance fired a shot from the right that landed in the left side of the goal. 

The Lady Knights had seven shots through the first 40 minutes. George said his squad’s buildup in the first half was sloppy, and their pace needed to quicken. 

“(Madison Central’s) defensive core was really good, so you’ve got just a split second to get those shots off your foot, and that’s what I told them at halftime,” he said. The tempo has to be faster, so the ball has to come off your foot quicker.”

West Lauderdale spent nearly the entire second half in enemy territory, and had chances to score off five corner kicks and a set piece that was on target but batted away. Off a corner with less than 11 minutes to play, junior Alice Williamson tried heading in a goal but was denied when a Lady Jaguars defenseman headed the ball out of the goal. Williamson also stole the ball after Madison Central controlled a corner with less than seven minutes left, and made a play at the goal, but missed.

“I think all in all, we dominated,” George said. “Twenty-seven shots, I think that’s the endgame. Another day, we might’ve finished five of them.”

The Lady Knights will host Oak Grove (3-3-0) Thursday.

The West Lauderdale boys team fell to Madison Central 7-0. The Knights (1-7-1) will play Oak Grove (4-1-0) Thursday.