SEVIERVILLE — A Friday evening win over the Sevier County Bearettes gave the Seymour Lady Eagles the third seed in the District 2-AAA soccer tournament.

Any thoughts of a letdown by the team after an emotional win over former heach coach Bobby Norwood’s Sevier County squad were unfounded.

The Lady Eagles cruised to a 9-0 victory over the Cocke County Lady Red in Monday night’s opening round game.

“That was our talk going in,” first-year head coach Drew Payne said. “We’re playing with a lot of momentum right now, and we can’t afford to play down to our competition.”

While Payne said he thought the team did come out flat, they rebounded quickly, scoring seven unanswered goals in the first half and netted two more in the second.

Senior Courtney Suttles had four of the Lady Eagles’ goals to lead the way.

Junior Jodie Wood had four assists and a goal, and Lauren Johnson knocked in a couple more for SHS.

The Lady Eagles got another positive out of the match as well.

“We got to play a lot of younger girls in a district tournament game, and that’s good, too,” Payne said.

Friday’s win over SCHS

“I’ll remember that one for a while,” Payne said of Friday’s 4-2 win over the Bearettes on SCHS’s home field.

“We played by far our best game of the season. I guess the girls were highly motivated, and we just came out on all cylinders.”

Lauren Johnson got the Blue and Gold started with an early goal on an assist from Deborah Huddleston to give the team a 1-0 lead.

But Sevier County answered, and then some, scoring two straight goals to go up 2-1.

Before halftime, though, Seymour got an equalizer as Jodie Wood scored on an assist from Courtney Suttles.

In the second half, it was all Seymour.

Sarah Dean netted the go-ahead goal for Seymour as Wood got an assist and Huddleston scored unassisted to give the team breathing room at 4-2.

“I was just glad to part of something like that it was amazing,” Payne said of his seniors’ first-ever win over the Bearettes.

The win gave Seymour the third seed for the tournament over Sevier County, who got the fourth seed.