Bend it Like Callahan
So after watching Clear Fork junior midfielder Emily Slavinsky use a corner kick to make like Beckham and curve a banana-shaped shot into the top, front corner of the goal, back on August 25 at West Holmes, Lady Knights sophomore forward Abby Callahan had an idea of what she wanted to do when she stepped up for a corner 12 minutes into the second-half of a 0-0 game at Clear Fork, Monday, Oct. 10, during a semifinal matchup in the winner’s bracket of the Ohio Cardinal Conference (OCC) tournament.
“I was trying to bend it, I seriously was,” explained Callahan after lofting the ball from the corner flag at the far end, near side of the field, arcing it up and over Lady Colts freshman goalkeeper Morgan Bailey, and curving it into the far side back of the net. “I try to hit it on the corner of my toe. I felt it. I was a little nervous, but I felt it.”
That set off a feeling of elation for Callahan and the rest of the Lady Knights after taking a 1-0 lead on the second-seeded defending OCC champions, just three days after stunning third-seeded Madison 1-0 in overtime to both pick up their first tournament opening win and beat a conference opponent other than Mansfield Senior for the first time in their program’s brief nine-year history (they beat Senior once in 2008, two times in ’09, and once again earlier this season).
But even with the Lady Knights girls soccer program still one year shy of its 10th birthday, fourth-year West Holmes head coach Josh Wengerd was celebrating his 35th as he watched Callahan step up to the opposite corner just over six minutes later at Clear Fork and lift a perfectly placed head-high pass to West Holmes senior forward Schuyler Jones, who shot it off of her forehead from nine yards out, beating Bailey to her right with what proved to be the final goal of the game, after the last 21:18 ticked off the clock, as West Holmes held on to knock off the Lady Colts 2-0 to advance to the championship game on Thursday, Oct. 13.
“The second one, the header to Schuyler, we work on those set pieces in practice and Schuyler’s definitely got a head for the ball,” said Wengerd. “That first one that Abby put in by herself, that just curved in, what can you say about that? That’s a birthday present right there. They did that to us in the first game so it was kind of nice to get a little payback.”
But aside from craving a little payback, after falling 3-2 to Clear Fork back in August, Wengerd and the Lady Knights obviously learned something from the one-goal loss to the Lady Colts and adjusted their style of play for the rematch, just as they did after falling by a single goal against Madison during the regular season.
“We knew their main threats were Martha Staab and Deijah Stewart,” explained Wengerd, talking about the other two Lady Colts who came up with goals during the Lady Knights first meeting with Clear Fork. “Alex Brown and Courtney Kozak did a tremendous job on those girls.”
In fact, Staab got so frustrated at the defensive work of Brown that she drew a yellow card midway through the second-half.
“We also knew they were going to play with a sweeper in the back,” added Wengerd. “So we put a forward on her, and Jordan Buchanan and Abby Callahan did a great job with that role. Mallory Wahl stayed in the middle and we inverted the other forward, so we were kind of playing with our three forwards stacked in the middle.”
The result was only three first-half shots for Clear Fork, with their best scoring chance coming at the 21:07 mark when senior midfielder Valerie Yarger shot an uncontested ball from the near side, which Harris went high in the air to tip out of bounds, resulting in the first of three Lady Colts corner kicks throughout the game.
The West Holmes defense cleared that corner, as well as the other two, but Callahan and the Lady Knights would eventually capitalize on two of their three opportunities at the flag posts, after Harris kept the game tied 0-0 three minutes into the second-half when she went to the ground to block a shot from the near side corner of the goalie box, diving to tip the ball out of bounds past the near post, setting up another corner kick, which Clear Fork clanged off the left football upright above the goal.
“I thought there is no way I’m going to get this but I just tapped it and it went out,” explained Harris afterward. “You’ve just got to go with what you’re feeling and where you’re assuming the ball’s going to go, and I figured that one out.”
But after only having to save two of the seven shots Clear Fork got off throughout the game, while Bailey blocked one of the eight taken by West Holmes at the other end, Harris also had high-praise for the Lady Knights defenders playing in front of her.
“They did amazing,” she said. “It was absolutely fabulous. Without them I would never get the shutouts that I have. They’re a big part of the success of my game.”
Wengerd agreed, saying, “They [Clear Fork] had some nice looks at some goals, but I think we really took them out of their game.
“And Shelby has been playing tremendous for us the past several weeks. Definitely last Thursday at Madison and again tonight, she’s made some big saves for us. She’s really coming on strong here at the end of the year.”
In fact, the entire team seems to have elevated its game toward the end of the season, and after nine years they’re finally looking and playing just like the other upper-echelon teams in the OCC.
Perhaps even looking better, because when it comes right down to it, Bend it Like Callahan is still so much more appealing than Bend it Like Slavinsky.
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Published: October 10, 2011
