FHS cruises past Vandebilt Tuesday

Fontainebleau senior Kaley Blanton scored two goals, while dishing out three assists, helping the Lady Bulldogs defeat the Division II defending state champion Vandebilt Lady Terriers, 6-1, in a non-district match held Tuesday afternoon at FHS.

“She was on fire today,” Fontainebleau coach Carly Hotard said.

Blanton said the Lady Bulldogs did a good job of competing together.

“Our team really came out ready to play. We had good practices over the break in preparing for the game. We knew it was going to be a tough game,” Blanton said.

Vandebilt (11-2-2) got some shots early, but the Lady Bulldogs were able to protect on the defensive side and keep the Lady Terriers from scoring. After that, Fontainebleau (10-1), who had 17 shots on goal to Vandebilt’s six, saw its offense score early and often.

In the seventh minute, Blanton received a pass from Casey Adkins. Vandebilt’s goalkeeper came out and Blanton got it by her to give FHS a 1-0 lead.

Just five minutes later, Blanton was on the passing end of a netter as she hooked up with Lauren Ritch, who kicked it into the left corner, making it 2-0.

In the 19th minute, the two connected once again and like her first one, Ritch put the ball into the left corner.

Seven minutes later, Blanton got the ball in the middle of the field, juked a defender and scored past a diving goalkeeper and 26 minutes in, FHS held a 4-0 advantage.

The match stayed that way until the second half, but it didn’t take long for Fontainebleau to start scoring once again.

Near the end of the first half, Vandebilt generated some offense, but failed to score.

In the 49th minute, the Lady Bulldogs had a corner kick. Shelby Latino sent the ball in and Casey Adkins headed in the fifth goal.

Just six minutes later, Blanton made a pass to Sydney Robbins.

From the right side of the field, she scored inside the right post.

Coach Hotard said she was proud of her team’s performance.

“Last year, we struggled with them a little bit. It was a 1-0 game, we won, but it was a hard fought game. So today, I made sure we kept our shots on frame, went first to the ball, played aggressive and we did everything. The shots were there, the girls were moving and making the runs. It was excellent,” Hotard said.

Vandebilt finally got on the board in the 73rd minute when Anna Champagne had a corner kick and the ball came back to her. She took advantage of the opportunity and scored in the 73rd minute.

Kaitlyn Villars started at goalkeeper for FHS and Hannah Hail came in during the 56th minute. Gabriella Vince was named the Lady Bulldogs’ top defender.