You’ve got to love it
“Oh my gosh, I love them,” said senior outside midfielder Rebecca Chamberlin – who setup Buchanan’s game-winner with a perfect through ball midway through the 15-minute overtime period – talking about the Lady Knights defense, which stood strong against River View even as the Lady Black Bears dominated play during regulation, outshooting West Holmes 14-0, launching 10 corner kicks to only two for the Lady Knights, and forcing Harris to come up with seven saves, while Black Bears freshman goalkeeper Heather Maxwell wasn’t tested even once.
“I do too, I love my defense,” added Buchanan, who got off the Lady Knights only two shots of the entire game in overtime, blasting one over the crossbar from just inside the right corner of the penalty box four minutes in, before taking Chamberlin’s pass just beyond the midfield stripe on the right side, with 6:41 showing on the clock, beating River View junior defender Justine Moran into the middle of the box and finishing strong into the left corner, while Maxwell went right.
All made possible by a physical defensive effort by the Lady Knights, which confounded the Black Bears offensive attack all night long and left no love lost between the two teams by the end of the game.
“I just finish what they start,” said West Holmes senior defender, and 2011 Homecoming Queen, Amy Boyd, after drawing the game’s only yellow card at the 4:13 mark of the second-half, battling against River View senior striker Kristin Eaton throughout the game, taking away one of River View’s most potent weapons and helping shut down the rest of the vaunted Lady Bears offense – an offense which struck for four second-half goals against the Lady Knights in Warsaw, back on Sept. 17, to pull out a 4-0 regular season victory. “I think she was frustrated because she’s always used to getting the ball and doing whatever she wants with it and I think it kind of got to her that she got shut down, so we just started dueling for it.”
“The defense played great,” agreed fourth-year head coach Josh Wengerd after watching Boyd and company duel for every ball and continually frustrate River View’s entire offensive attack. “We wanted to take No. 15 [senior forward Keirsten Ashcraft] out of the equation. We wanted to take No. 1 [senior Rachel Hammond], the center-mid out of the equation. We wanted to take No. 3 [Eaton], their defender who ended up playing offense, out of the equation. And I think we did those three things well.
“We kept their big three players from doing anything to hurt us, we bent but didn’t break, and even though that wasn’t really our game plan – we thought we could do a little bit more offensively – I think we just weathered the storm for 80-plus minutes and luckily came out on the right end of it tonight.”
The storm the Lady Knights weathered started just a minute into the action when Eaton shot wide left from just inside the opposite corner of the penalty box. It included three straight corner kick opportunities for the Black Bears within the fourth minute of the game, another corner at the 25:26 mark, and two more set pieces from the flag inside the 24th minute.
But the Lady Black Bears best scoring chance of the opening 40 minutes came with 9:40 left to play, when Ashcraft secured a ball with her back to the goal at the top of the penalty box, faked her defender left, spun right and fired an uncontested shot to the right corner that Harris dove to keep out of the net, sending both teams into the break tied 0-0.
“Those are ones where I just have to react,” explained Harris. “When shots like that get through there’s nothing you can do but just go for it. But other than that my defense did an amazing job tonight. They played absolutely incredible and they were just awesome.”
They had to be awesome in the second half and so did Harris as River View amped up its attack, keeping the ball on its offensive end most of the period and reeling off 12 of its 14 shots.
“We were on our heels,” said Wengerd, as he watched Eaton break free from Boyd less than two minutes into the second half, dribbling into the left side of the penalty box and trying to sneak a shot into the near corner, which Harris turned away with another spectacular diving save. “Not so much in the first half, but in the second half for sure.
“River View is a great team. They are hard-nosed, they are fast, they are physical and they play the game the right way.”
Ashcraft was on the left side when she lifted a shot toward the upper part of the goal with 34:51 showing on the clock, forcing Harris to go high in the air to corral the ball and keep the game scoreless.
“It’s very nerve-racking,” explained Harris as River View senior midfielder Samantha Brown lasered one in from outside the right corner of the box three minutes later, and the junior keeper could only knock it down with her hands before scrambling to scoop it back up. “You have to go all-out the entire time. You have to be committed to what you’re doing the entire time.”
As time continued to wind down, Eaton hit the near post from outside the right side of the penalty box with 23:40 left to play; she was stopped by Harris on another attempt from the right side of the box, on a tricky angle just short of the goal line at the 16:32 mark; Ashcraft forced another diving save when she tried the right corner from just inside the penalty box with 6:42 remaining; and junior midfielder Kim Scheetz tried the left corner with 3:04 still showing on the clock, forcing Harris to dive and deflect another ball out of bounds.
“It’s body language and ball position,” Harris explained, talking about her ability to turn away so many River View scoring opportunities. “I need to stay behind the ball no matter where it’s going. I have to make sure it’s right in front of me the entire time so I can judge where it’s going.”
When the first sudden-victory overtime period began the ball suddenly started going the right way for the Lady Knights, as Buchanan got her first shot off four minutes in and took a pretty little forwarding pass from sophomore forward Abby Callahan less than three minutes later, before being whistled offside all alone behind the River View defense.
But she was onside, and on her way to beating the River View defense down the right side again, with just over 6:30 to go, when she shouted “Becca,” as Chamberlin secured a bounding ball near the midfield stripe with the Lady Black Bears defense pushing toward her.
“I wasn’t expecting to get the ball to my feet because it was kind of wild,” explained Chamberlin. “But then I got it down and I hear Jordan. I glance up and see her, and we’re just like, bam.”
And, bam, just like that, the love began to flow and the Lady Knights’ winning ways continued as they chalked up their seventh straight victory to secure the District title and move on to the DII Zanesville regional tournament, starting Wednesday, Nov. 2.
“I love that feeling,” said Buchanan. “When I can see the goal and the goalie and she’s off to one side and I have the ball. The girl was in the one corner and I just shot for the other one and it went in. I just love that feeling.”
“I think I was out on the field before the goal actually went in,” said Wengerd afterward. “It was one of those that you knew was going in, or had a good chance anyway. It was just elation. It was just kind of an unbelievable that that just happened moment.
“The defense played great. Shelby Harris made some big saves. All those things and we were patient, patient, patient, got a couple chances there and were able to make one. That’s a good way to win. I’m sure it’s a terrible way to lose.”
But you’ve got to love it.
West Holmes will take on Richmond Edison in the opening round of the DII Zanesville Regional tournament, at Zanesville High School, on Wednesday, Nov. 2, starting at 7 p.m.
Published: October 25, 2011
