Brown is golden
So leave it to a freshman to squeal the tires, complete the turn, and put the program firmly on the straightaway toward success.
That’s exactly what ninth-grade midfielder Alex Brown did on Thursday, Oct. 6, 6:52 into a 10-minute golden-goal overtime period, during the sixth-seeded Lady Knights’ Ohio Cardinal Conference (OCC) tournament opener at No. 3 Mansfield Madison, as she controlled a bad clearing attempt off of a throw in on the Lady Knights offensive end of the field, and launched a shot from 25 yards out, right of the penalty box, which arced over the outstretched fingers of Lady Rams goalkeeper Andrea Myers, into the left side of the net.
“We knew it would happen sometime,” said an emotional Wengerd after Brown’s golden-goal gave the Lady Knights their first-ever first-round OCC tournament victory, 1-0 over the Lady Rams. “Glad it finally did.
“I just felt so happy for our girls. It was a big win for our program and validates all the hard work these girls have put in this season, in the off-season and in past years.”
Viewed in the perspective of the past eight years, Brown’s golden goal was historic in other ways as well, with the victory over Madison representing West Holmes’ first ever win against an OCC opponent other than Mansfield Senior – the Lady Knights beat the Lady Tygers once in 2008, twice in ’09, and once again earlier this season – and guaranteed West Holmes its best ever tournament finish, somewhere in the top four.
“Beautiful shot, and she couldn’t have picked a better time to score her first goal of the season” said Wengerd, talking about Brown’s historic game-winner, which was made even more impressive by the fact that it was put in under less than favorable conditions, as Madison moved the contest to its junior high school football field due to drainage and lighting issues on the varsity football and soccer field.
“It was very crowded and we were bunched,” explained Wengerd as the game unfolded on a setup 20 yards shorter and approximately seven yards more narrow than a soccer field. “We kicked the ball out a lot in the first half.”
In fact, the Lady Knights would only get off nine shots on goal during the course of the entire game, while Madison launched 11 toward West Holmes junior goalkeeper Shelby Harris.
“Shelby played very well for us again tonight,” said the West Holmes head coach, who watched Harris come up with four key saves throughout the game, while Myers blocked three and would have needed a growth-spurt to have a chance at the one she couldn’t stop. “She has been great for us of late.”
But Harris and the rest of the Lady Knights also experienced their fair-share of heartache in close games this year, as West Holmes went 0-4 in games decided by a single goal – before the tournament opener at Madison – with three of those losses coming against OCC opponents, including a 3-2 loss to Madison back on Sept. 1.
During that first meeting Madison scored two of its three goals on penalty kicks, which the Lady Knights and Lady Rams would have had to use to decide their tournament opener 3:08 later, had Brown not scored the golden goal.
“Alex’s goal meant that penalty kicks were out the window,” said an excited Wengerd, as the Lady Knights avoided their third-straight penalty kick shootout in the OCC tourney, after beating Senior in the second round two years ago, and falling to the Lady Tygers in round two last year.
Brown’s goal and the West Holmes win seemed to reverse all kinds of recent trends but also capped off one very positive trend Wengerd recognized when he took over the program four years ago.
“I think the change really started with these eight girls that are seniors,” said the 1995 West Holmes graduate prior to the start of the 2011 season, referring to Amy Boyd, Jordan Buchanan, Rebecca Chamberlin, Brynley Conway, Joy Edinger, Schuyler Jones, Mariah Oswalt and Ashten Spencer. “When they were freshmen they had a lot more experience than even the seniors on that team. A lot of those girls played soccer year-round on club or travelling teams, and so their talent might have been above a junior or senior. And the number of club and travel players we have each year increases, so you really do see the foundation starting to be more solid for us.”
Thanks to another incoming freshman.
And when those things start to happen, it usually means the foundation is done and the construction of a long-lasting structure is underway.
West Holmes travels to Bellville to take on second-seeded Clear Fork on Monday, Oct. 10, after falling to the Lady Colts 3-2 back on August 25.
Published: October 6, 2011
