The Forrest Lady Rockets, coming off consecutive losses, bounced back in a huge way Thursday night on the Lions Club Memorial Field in Chapel Hill, easily handling Cascade 8-2 on Senior Night.

"Since it was Senior Night, I was afraid that the girls would have a hard time focusing," said Forrest head coach Natalie Dennis. "But they came out playing hard, although the second half was better than the first."

Seniors shine

It was also senior scoring night with Cassie Septer leading the way with a hat trick, while Sarah Blasingim recorded a brace, and fellow seniors Sierra Waggoner and LaDonna Stinson netted one goal apiece.

Sophomore Brynn Colvin recorded the other tally and had two assists in the contest.

Quick strikes

Forrest picked up two quick goals as Septer scored 20 minutes into the match and four minutes later, Septer scored off a Colvin pass at the 24:38 mark of the first half.

Cassidy Carpenter scored to keep it close for the Lady Champs, but Septer came up with the natural hat trick moments later to make it a 3-1 contest.

"I always like to see it when the girls get into their groove and play our game," said Dennis. "When we do that, we are hard to beat."

Cascade put some pressure on the Forrest defense and it paid off when Kristen Heath knocked in a long range missile with just less than 10 minutes to play in the half and two minutes later, they almost tied it up, but Forrest goalie Jasmine Runk came up with a diving save.

Energized

The Lady Rockets picked up some energy after the Runk save and Blasingim scooted into high gear, making a nice run down the left side before cutting back to the middle of the field where she let go a heat seeker into the back of the Cascade net, making it a 4-2 ballgame and the first half ended four minutes later with FHS still holding the two-goal margin.

Waggoner quickly made it 5-2 when she drilled home a rebound five minutes into the second half.

Cascade would miss their second penalty kick of the game at the 10-minute mark and it seemed to deflate the visiting Lady Champs as Forrest played much of the remainder of the game in Cascade's end of the field.

"We addressed our defensive issues at halftime and the girls came out and did a much better job in the second half," said Dennis.

Stinson knocked in a goal at the midway point of the second half to make it 6-2 and Blasingim converted in front of the Cascade to put Forrest up 7-2, before Colvin put the icing on the seniors' night cake, knocking in one of her patented long range shots to make it an 8-2 contest.

Tournament tune-up

Forrest (8-2, 5-1) has one more regular season game remaining when they host White House-Heritage Tuesday night in a District 9A-AA match-up.

"White House-Heritage is in our district, but they are in the north division," said Dennis. "So, do we want to dominate? Yes, of course, we do. It would be a sweet win heading into the tournament."

The play-in games will take place on Saturday, October 11, before the first round begins on Tuesday, October 14 when Forrest will host Cheatham County.