The Bradley Central Bearettes recovered from a Tuesday loss to McMinn County to pick up their first District 5-AAA win, 3-0, over the visiting Rhea County Lady Eagles.

“We came into tonight with a real positive attitude. We lost on Tuesday which was our first district match,” said head coach Chrissy McKinney. “We know how much these games count so we were really trying to focus on getting our heads up, being strong and not being defeated before we take the field.”

The Bearettes kept the Lady Eagles on the defensive for the better part of the first half and took the lead when Kelsey Whitmire scored the first goal of the game at the 15-minute mark.

The junior Bearette used some help from Melanie Siler to score her second goal of the game at the 19-minute mark. Whitmire took the pass from Siler and dribbled just far enough forward to find a clear shot before sending the ball to the back of the net.

“We were ready for the challenge today. I think it was a pretty good game. It was more to our level today. We put some things together,” McKinney said. “I thought the girls have really been applying some of the things we were working on”

The Bearettes went up 3-0 midway through the second half on a Mikayla Ard goal. The Bradley Central sophomore took a cross from Alexia Hubbard, settled it and fired it into the nylons to give the Bearettes their winning margin.

“We were on our half (of the field) most of the time working the ball around. Their keeper made some phenomenal saves. She really kept them from getting scored on a few times in the second half.”

The Bearettes travel to Ooltewah for their third district match in a row Tuesday at 7 p.m. Junior varsity action gets underway at 5.