State Quarters

23 May at STA in Quarterfinals vs. Shawnee Heights (10-0)

Ok, you don't see a lot of spreads in the State Quarterfinals, but that is just what the girls did tonight against a Shawnee Heights team who had just knocked off undefeated De Soto, fallen only 1-0 to Washburn Rural—so unexpected.

What we did do was attack the baseline early and often; we framed well, picking up some easy goals.  I believe we cashed 4 STA balls in the first half.  And less than 2 minutes in Hania got us on the board following Brigid's nice corner-like deadball. Early goals have been one of our best formulas all year: when we get them, we tend to win.

It was a night where a lot of things just went well early.  It reminded me of our Liberty game from Mo-Kan—just an unexplainable spread against a pretty decent team. (Let's make sure we don't have a similar follow-up game to the Liberty one.)

Freshman Maggie Ryan got her first varsity minutes tonight, playing some center midfield and some defensive center midfield.  She played well. 

And her cousin, Kyli Jackson was named BWhite Player of the Match. Her back post header for the goal capped off a great match where she won ball after ball and just kept moving the ball quickly through our midfield.

Production was off the charts: Yes, Hallie had 3 goals and 2 assists, but Isa had a goal and an assist; Elle a goal and an assist; Katelyn, a goal, an assist and a dummy leading to a goal, Brigid had 3 assists from left back, one a t-ball; Madison and Marge and Natalie created dummies that lead to goals; Alex was in the 18 when she slipped Elle that nice ball she finished. We just constantly got groups forward, coordinated in their attacks. It was good soccer and fun to watch.

Now, if we can just figure out the corner in the next two days, who knows? 

The fact that Heights did not get a shot off is a tribute to Hamms' "we all play defense," and in this one we all did. We played two sets of 4 in the back, 2 keepers. So we had an intensity and a desire to take away space throughout the lineup. 

We now get the rematch of last year's state semi-final against Maize. They just might be interested in a little revenge. We better be ready to go.

We stand 15-3-1, heading to our 14th straight final four—that's just nuts and pretty unexplainable. In our previous 13 trips, we have tallied 10 State titles, 2 State runner-ups and a third place finish.

STATS:

First Half:  Shots: 20 (15) Corners: 6 (Hallie 3, Woltering 2, K. Heying)

38:38 Crow (Linder bends the deadball like a corner kick off the keeper)

38:31 Woltering (Klanke T's it through the K. Heying dummy)

29:28 Yanes (Kimball T's it through the Janky dummy)

21:30 Klanke (Linder T's it through Pigott Dummy)

17:42 Jackson (K. Heying launches the long Box-ball to the back post for the header)

4:42 Kimball (Moss find Elle's feet)

1:20 Klanke (Linder finds her once again)

Heights: Shots: 0 Corners: 0

Second Half:  Saints: Shots: 10 (6) Corners: 9 (Linder 2, Ryan, K. Heying 2, Klanke, Crow, Kimball, Yanes)

32: 03 K. Heying (Klanke finds her back post)

27:27 M. Heying (Yanes boxes it through 2 dummies)

11:44 Klanke (Woltering goes through)

Heights: Shots: 0 Corners: 0