UNIONVILLE, Tenn. – Coming off of a perfect weekend at the Smoky Mountain Cup in Gatlinburg, the Cascade Lady Champions (5-0-0, 2-0-0) picked up their fifth-consecutive win to open the season in the ‘Battle of Bedford’ at Community (0-1, 0-1) on Tuesday night, 3-1.

Lexi Comstock’s solo goal preceded a brace from Marisa Gulick for Cascade while the Viqueens’ lone goal in their season opener came from Sara Flannagan in the second half.

“I think that what we worked on all weekend in Gatlinburg was making the extra pass, finding the extra person, and I think it showed up tonight,” Lady Champions’ Head Coach Wendy Williams said postgame, “They [Community] dropped their line pretty deep to keep us from finding our through balls, but the girls always find a way.”

The only time the Viqueens left their defensive line high, Comstock punished them for it. In the ninth minute, the Lady Champions’ star forward received the ball near midfield, turned, and found acres of space to run past the Community backline, using her pace to beat every defender to the box and calmly slot home her 14th goal of the young season into the bottom-left corner to take a 1-0 lead.

However, over the next 20 minutes or so, the Viqueens quickly grew into the game. Despite losing all three matchups to Cascade in 2025, Community found confidence in upping the physicality, disrupting the passing and moving that the visitors were attempting to accomplish.

That is, until the 32nd minute when Gulick found space just inside the 18-yard box, unleashing a lofted attempt at goal that seemed to float over the goalkeeper’s outstretched arms into the top left corner to double the Lady Champions’ lead to 2-0 heading into halftime.

Despite the two-goal deficit, Community opened the second half strong, pushing forward and putting pressure on the Cascade goal before finally breaking through in the 52nd minute. Sara Flannagan powered her way into the box before calmly passing the ball into the bottom-left corner to trim the visitors’ lead in half, 2-1. This was the first goal Cascade had conceded all season.

“I was proud of them because they didn’t lose their composure,” Williams said about her team following the Viqueens’ trimming the lead to just one goal, “They didn’t get down after Community scored, they just came back and answered it with a goal to get us a two-goal lead. I guess the fear is always that the momentum shifts when someone scores, but our girls answered back and held strong.”

Adalyn Nelms nearly got the goal back for Cascade in the 63rd minute, but her shot nicked the crossbar on its way over the Community goal. The Viqueens turned the pressure back up in attack over the next five minutes in response, earning a corner in the 70th minute before being turned away by the Lady Champions’ defense. 

Finally, the pivotal next goal came in the 72nd minute. After Kaylee Martin delivered a cross from the right wing into the vicinity of Nelms, the Viqueens only managed to clear the ball to the onrushing Comstock at the top of the box. Comstock calmly waited before delivering a peach of a pass to Gulick at the back post to allow the sophomore left-winger to secure her brace with a roofed shot past the keeper to re-take a two-goal lead. 

“That’s the kind of thing that we’ve been working on, but from our vantage point it looked like she [Lexi Comstock] had kicked it too hard,” Williams said, “She didn’t though, and it was beautiful, and Marisa got to it.”

That final nail in the coffin took the wind out of the Viqueens’ sails, and the Lady Champions nearly scored again three minutes later, but were offside, keeping the final score at 3-1 in the first meeting between the two sides in District 9-A play.

Cascade hosts reigning District 9-A champs Chapel Hill on Thursday night at 6:00 p.m. while Community travels to The Webb School on Thursday with kickoff set for 6:00 p.m.