Bend It Like Slavinsky
And, while far removed from the English Premier League, when Clear Fork junior forward Emily Slavinsky sent an arcing, banana-shaped shot toward West Holmes junior goalkeeper Shelby Harris, on a corner kick, at the 32:57 mark of the second half of the Lady Knights’ and Lady Colts’ Ohio Cardinal Conference (OCC) opener – Thursday, August 25, on the soccer pitch at West Holmes High School – it provided the turning point in a game that produced nearly as much drama as the movie.
Slavinsky’s impossible shot tucked itself neatly into the top of the front corner of the goal, past Harris’ outstretched arms, tying the game at two apiece and setting the defending conference champions up for a 3-2 win, when they found the back of the net again less than 18 minutes later.
“That was an amazing goal,” said Harris afterward. “There’s nothing I could have done about that. I had it, but the curve on it was incredible, so congratulations to her [Slavinsky] because that was a phenomenal shot.”
It was a less-than phenomenal shot that gave the Lady Knights a 1-0 lead with only 3:34 showing on the clock during the first half of a game that was back and forth from the opening whistle, with both teams hustling after loose balls, battling for control with physical play, and able to set up shot opportunities on the offensive end. West Holmes pushed forward and got senior midfielder Rebecca Chamberlin alone in space on the right side, where she uncorked a shot from outside the corner of the box, rolling it to the left of Clear Fork freshman goalkeeper Morgan Bailey, who had her eyes fixed upfield and raised her hands before the ball arrived, allowing it to trickle slowly into the left corner of the net.
“I didn’t think it went in,” explained Chamberlin. “I thought she stopped it, so I started going back to mark up my girl and I turned around because [I heard everybody reacting] and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ I think I stopped breathing for half-a-minute.”
“Morgan had some tremendous saves early on,” said Clear Fork head coach Brittany Bechtel, who watched each keeper face her fair share of breathtaking tests throughout the game, as shots ended up 12-10, in favor of West Holmes, with Harris being credited with eight saves and Bailey with six. “That first goal, she had her hands down but her gloves weren’t all the way to the ground and she was already looking for placement before she had it. She made a mental error there.”
Harris could empathize with the freshman between the pipes at the other end of the field…for a little while.
“That’s definitely a painful goal to have scored on you. I know her pain on that one for sure,” said Harris, who felt her own type of pain after watching the tying goal settle into the net behind her with only four seconds remaining in the first half, when freshman forward Deijah Swihart connected with senior forward Martha Staab, sending a pass in from the left side, which Staab stabbed and controlled about 13 yards in front of Harris, blasting it past the West Holmes junior and sending the teams into the break tied 1-1.
“This was a very evenly played game,” said West Holmes head coach Josh Wengerd, whose team has only won three OCC games in its brief eight-year history. “We talked before the game about gaining some respect in our conference and the girls responded very well to the message.
“It sounds odd to say we played a full 80 minutes when we gave up a goal with four seconds left in the half, but I really think we played a complete game tonight. That goal was unfortunate for us. It would have been great to go into halftime with a lead.”
But 1:20 into the second half, Wengerd and company had their lead back when freshman forward Mallory Wahl tapped ahead to senior forward Jordan Buchanan 12 yards out on the right side, allowing the Lady Knights leading scorer from 2010 to beat Bailey to the left corner, for her first goal in 2011.
When the ball scooted over the goal line 5:43 later, however, it set up Slavinsky to bend it like Beckham on the corner kick, knotting things back up at two.
“It was so stressful,” said Chamberlin of the back and forth scoring between West Holmes and Clear Fork. “It was like a buzz of adrenaline. It was ridiculous.”
“These types of games are an adrenaline rush the entire time,” agreed Harris. “A lot of times as a goalie I’m just in the back chillin’ back there, but with this game everybody was a part of it the entire time. Everybody just felt so united with the adrenaline that we were pushing the entire time.”
But leave it to a freshman to bring everybody back down, as Swihart took a forwarding pass on the right side with 15:13 showing on the clock, bringing Harris out of the goal and beating the sliding junior to her left with the game-winner, which dropped West Holmes to 0-2 on the season (0-1, OCC), while lifting Clear Fork to 1-0 (1-0).
“The back and forth of this game was like an emotional roller coaster, but we never felt like we were out of it,” said Wengerd afterward. “We scored a couple goals, they answered and they go up. We felt like we were in it all the way to the end but we would have liked to have tied it up and at least gotten out of here with a tie instead of a loss.
“There’s nothing to hang our heads about tonight.”
No reason to get bent out of shape even after seeing one get bent in like Beckham’s.
Published: August 25, 2011
