Druid Hills’ Zaila Karim-Hidalgo (16) works against a Heritage defender during second half action of Druid Hills’ 6-0 win. Hidalgo completed the game with three goals to collect the hattrick. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Zaila Karim-Hidalgo converted a hattrick and Emily Meier added two more goals as the Druid Hills Lady Red Devils shutout the Heritage Lady Patriots 6-0 in their high school girls’ soccer regular season finale at Adams Stadium on Friday night.
Emlen Cooper got Druid Hills (10-5-2) on the board with a steal deep in Heritage’s end of the field and cashed it in for a goal less than nine minutes into the match for an early 1-0 lead.
Heritage keeper Cayla Ward kept it at 1-0 with a pair of saves before Hidalgo put together back-to-back goals in a 32-second span to make it 3-0. Hidalgo split defenders and snapped a shot into the top-right corner of the goal with 6:33 left in the half.
She then got the ball, put a move on a defender and sent a shot into the left lower corner past Ward to make it 3-0 where the score remained going into the second half.
Meier pushed the advantage to 4-0 at the 24:59 mark of the second half with her first goal of the game as the Lady Red Devils began to put more pressure on the Heritage (5-9-0) defense.
Ward turned away two Druid Hills’ shots in a 26-second span and another at the 14:07 mark before Meier found the net again thanks to a nifty pass by Asa Copeland with 12:37 to play and extended the margin to 5-0.
Hidalgo completed the hattrick at the 8:09 mark of the second half as Alyssa Estep fed her on the way to goal to close out the 6-0 victory.
Druid Hills’ defense and keeper Blythe Fisher (3 saves) limited Heritage to just seven shots for the match while the Druid Hills’ offense put together 17 shots and six goals. Emlen Cooper and Izzy Zyglis had assists in the match.
The Lady Red Devils are the No. 3 seed in Region 6-4A and go on the road to Region 7-4A No. 2 seed and No. 10 ranked Southeast Whitfield (10-3-1) at 6:00 pm on Friday (4/19).