Junior Lindsay Ransome is half of a potent offensive tandem on King’s Fork High School’s girls’ soccer team. Freshman Cydney Nichols is the new kid on the block, but, according to Lady Bulldogs head coach Jason Stump, “Teams, by now, are familiar with Lindsay.”

And a few things about the third-year varsity player have certainly become cemented in their minds – she is very fast, she is very skilled and she is dangerous on the field.

Her speed and agility were huge factors in King’s Fork’s monumental upset of Hickory High School on April 11. They also led to her becoming the Duke Automotive-Suffolk News-Herald Player of the Week.

She scored the first and last goals for her team in a 3-2 victory over the Lady Hawks that constituted one of the area’s biggest soccer upsets in recent history.

“I felt good,” Ransome said of her performance. “We came out prepared, instead of scared, as a team, and we stayed together as a team on the field.”

Stump said he was worried going into the game, because she seemed a little down and frustrated. He talked to her to boost her confidence, and his worry melted away when she scored two goals in the first half.

She took things to a different level in the second half, though. With about 10 minutes left in the game, King’s Fork was still up 3-2, and victory seemed within its grasp. But Hickory also has a fast and aggressive striker who still was a threat.

Stump knew something needed to be done to make sure this striker would not score. Though he had only ever seen Ransome play striker, Stump decided to fight fire with fire.

“We moved her back to defense and specifically gave her the job of handling that person, because we knew she had the speed to do it, and she did a marvelous job,” he said. “The look on the Hickory coach’s face when we did that was, ‘Oh, no.’”

It was an opportunity for Ransome to go back to her roots. She was a defender when she first began playing soccer.

Her history with the sport started when she was 6.

“My mom just said whatever you want to do, I’ll sign you up for it,” Ransome said.

And she took her mom at her word, participating in dance, cheer, gymnastics, swimming and soccer.

“Then she ended up making me choose one,” Ransome said.

Soccer had the edge because “it was just something different,” she said.

Ransome had three years of experience with the Suffolk Youth Athletic Association, then moved on to travel teams. She was with the Old Dominion Soccer Club for two years and then spent three years with the SOL Futbol Academy, before the coach moved and her team disbanded.

Seeing the success she is achieving now as a Lady Bulldog, “My husband and I, we always knew she had it in her,” her mother, Kim Ransome said.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Lindsay’s father, Leon Ransome. “Lindsay has always done really well. Lindsay is truly freaky fast.”

Stump said Ransome applies a surprising leadership technique to help during tense situations: humor.

“She can make a tough situation a little lighter when it needs to be,” he said.

Ransome’s teammates and her competitiveness play key roles in her motivation to play her best,s he said.

“Music gets me hyped, and then I just talk to my teammates, and we get each other hyped,” she said. “My goal is to build my team to become better and to beat Nansemond (River High School).”