About face
There's no profound statement to follow, "face it" is simply how West Holmes scored its lone goal of the 2011 home and season-opener against Triway, Monday, August 22, as sophomore forward Abby Callahan controlled a ball, which ricocheted straight down off her face, 3:40 into the second half, blasting a ball into the back of the net and tying the game at 1-1.
But face it, had the Lady Knights converted just a fraction more of their scoring opportunities into goals they would have rolled over the Lady Titans instead of walking away with a 2-1 loss.
"This is the fourth year we've opened up against Triway and it just seems that's the way we play against them," said fourth-year West Holmes head coach Josh Wengerd after watching his team outshoot Triway 27-5. "We outplay them. We outshoot them. We're making the right runs, we're making the better passes, we're winning the 50-50 balls, but the past four years it's 2-2 and they've all been close, 2-1, 1-0 games. We just cannot find the back of the net, not to take anything away from their keeper because she made some big saves for them."
Officially, Triway sophomore Mariah Cruise made five big saves for the Lady Titans, including one at the eight-minute mark of the first half when she went up toward the bottom of the crossbar while backpedaling, using full extension of her body and arms to haul in a lob shot off the foot of West Holmes forward Mallory Wahl, that would have dropped into the goal behind her, as she placed one foot over the goal line to maintain her balance but kept the ball from crossing the plane.
"The difference between last year and this is just mind-blowing. I'm so proud of her," said Triway assistant coach Shawn Small as he watched Cruise cut down angles, attack the ball when necessary and stay back at the right times, maintaining her calm despite nearly constant pressure from the Lady Knights offense, which kept the ball on Triway's half of the field most of the night, attacking with an arsenal of cross shots they couldn't push into the net.
"We need to work on moving off the ball," explained West Holmes senior right-wing Schuyler Jones, who led the Lady Knights in scoring as a sophomore in 2009 but suffered a season-ending knee injury early last year against Hiland. "If we keep our feet moving and lose the defender we'll get right to the goal, right in front, and we'll get it in."
Triway capitalized on an opportunity right in front of the goal with only 3:36 remaining in the opening half, taking a 1-0 lead when Sarah Courtney controlled a free kick from outside the right corner of the penalty box, in front of West Holmes keeper Shelby Harris, trapping the ball six yards out, dribbling once to her right and rifling it past the Lady Knights junior clad in neon-green and white.
"We spend 20 to 30 minutes a night [working on set pieces] and it shows," explained Small. "[Head coach Aaron] Bienek was an outside-mid so it's something he harps on. He's big on the set pieces and executing them."
The Lady Titans would execute on a corner kick late in the second half, to secure the win, after Callahan tied the game at the 36:20 mark, when Wahl took a right-side throw in from 40 yards out, dribbled into the box and blasted a ball off the foot of a Triway defender, sending it over her right shoulder, and into the face of the trailing Callahan, who controlled and found the back of the net.
But, while unable to create scoring opportunities on offense, the Lady Titans would regain the lead with only 4:34 remaining in the game, when Destiny Roberts lofted a corner kick from the left side, allowing Lyndsey Shafter to head it up and over Harris, who had wandered forward on the play, leaving too much space between herself and the opening of the goal, preventing her from making the same kind of backpedaling save Cruise had in the first.
"I think on that corner our keeper came out and the ball wasn't where she expected it," explained Wengerd. "They had a girl there to clean it up and we didn't have a defender there to get a good clear on it.
"It's kind of our trend. The three goals we gave up in preseason came off of corners and set pieces, so that's something we've got to work on and get better at. We'll have to watch some film and see if we're just losing our marks, or what's happening there."
"We battled," said Small, whose team went 2-10-2 a year ago, following a season-opening loss against West Holmes. "We did the little things. We didn't stop. There was a ton of heart tonight. It was a fantastic way to start."
But it wasn't an altogether bad way for West Holmes to start either.
"You can play a great game like we did tonight, but if you can't finish the ball better than we did, it's going to be hard to win," said Wengerd. "I think we played a tremendous game in terms of the possession and the passing, but we need to move a little more. We were a little tentative.
"I'm happy that we played closer to our ability and if we can learn to finish, hopefully everything will start to click."
Because face it, this is a game the Lady Knights should have won.
Published: August 22, 2011
