Still winning
- Updated: April 10, 2025
Donoho keeps streak of Calhoun County Tournament championships alive with 2-0 victory over Jacksonville, claims eighth title.
Girls’ pairings
MONDAY, April 7
No. 4 White Plains 6, No. 5 Weaver 0
No. 6 Oxford 3, No. 3 Saks 1
No. 2 Jacksonville 10, No. 7 Faith Christian 0
TUESDAY, April 8
Semifinals
No. 1 Donoho 9, White Plains 0
Jacksonville 3, Oxford 1
THURSDAY, April 10
Championship
Donoho 2, Jacksonville 0
By Joe Medley
East Alabama Sports Today
OXFORD — Samantha Wakefield had started for Donoho’s girls’ soccer program since seventh grade. Now, a senior, she’ll graduate without ever having lost a Calhoun County Tournament match.
Donoho got a goal apiece from Anna Kate Wallace and Sophia Sanders, and the Falcons beat Jacksonville 2-0 in Thursday’s championship match at Choccolocco Park.
Donoho (16-0), which survived a penalty-kick shootout with Jacksonville in the 2024 county final, claimed its eighth county title. There’ve been eight county tournaments.
The Falcons have bigger goals that county. They’re pursuing an elusive Class 1A-3A state title after falling in two state finals and making three Final Fours.
Make no mistake about it, said Wakefield, the most recent Donoho player to be named county-tourney MVP. County matters.
The Falcons didn’t just claim their latest county-championship trophy. They charged to it in the postgame awards ceremony and celebrated like it was their first county title.
“It’s kind of a tradition at Donoho,” she said. “We talked about it on Friday before practice. We play for the girls who came in this tournament and won our seventh-grade year, and it’s become part of our standard.
“All the little girls have seen us work all year, and they’ve seen us dominate, and it encourages them to hopefully continue the legacy.”
Wakefield came away as tourney MVP a year after she kicked the decisive penalty kick against Jacksonville.
Wallace, the tournament’s offensive MVP, scored her 50th goal of the season and needs eight to break Lily Wiedmer’s single-season school record.
Wallace fought through triple teams to get one in the net.
“They were all on me,” she said. “I knew that was going to be the case, so I always try to flip back and find my passes to the wing and bring them towards me, so I could push it out and give the younger players a chance to score.”
Then there’s goalkeeper Laralee Church, who has a habit of showing up big in county finals. She made two saves in last year’s penalty-kick shootout and had 12 saves against Jacksonville on Thursday.
Church plays on the back end for a team that has outscored opponents 129 goals to six this season, but the top-ranked Falcons needed her county heroics to keep Jacksonville scoreless in a low–scoring match Thursday.
“She definitely stepped up again,” Donoho coach Tim Melton said.
The Falcons used a new formation to try to slow the game in the first half, Melton said, but Church made several saves in the second half.’
“I was definitely grateful not to go back to the PKs (like last year),” she said. “People think we have an easy roster, but we come out, and we work, and this game we prepared all season for it.
“They were a good team.”
Jacksonville coach Kim Darby said keeping Donoho down to two goals was not about a magic strategy.
“We just played hard and tried to win the ball,” she said. “We had an incredible second half. We just didn’t come out as sharp as we wanted to, but the kids played their hearts out.”
All-Tournament team
MVP: Samantha Wakefield, Donoho.
Offensive MVP: Anna Kate Wallace, Donoho.
Defensive MVP: Emma Easterling, Jacksonville.
Also:
Donoho: Chloe Melton, Laralee Church, Morgan Perry.
Jacksonville: Saran Sloughy, Willa Kate Walker, Emerson Weaver.
Oxford: Tia Nichols, Rachel Garcia.
White Plains: Lorali McKenzie, Kaylee Roberts.
Weaver: Annalynna Canchucaja.
Faith Christian: Savannah Heindl.
Saks: Alonda Chavero.
Photo gallery by Joe Medley
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