Tuesday, Mar. 25, 2008
South survives shootout; North falls
Tod Palmer
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ReprintOpening its season Tuesday against the metro's top forward, Morgan Marlborough, and Lee's Summit North, the Olathe South girls soccer team scored an impressive victory in the first round of the Mo-Kan Classic at St. Thomas Aquinas.
Marlborough, who scored a ridiculous 57 goals last season, managed one goal against the Falcons, but South got its own tally from sophomore Kaitlynn Pelger in regulation and held on for a shootout.
The Falcons, 1-0, were perfect on all five penalty kicks after regulation and advanced to the semifinals.
"I'm real pleased, especially for the first game," South coach Will Stoskopf said. "The girls didn't play timid at all. We played hard and possessed the ball well."
The Falcons dominated the Broncos, 2-1, in every facet in the first half. South possessed the ball like a well-oiled machine and created several quality scoring chances.
The Falcons didn't resemble a team playing its first game against stiff competition with revamped front and back lines.
"I was extremely happy with the first half except that we didn't score," Stoskopf said. Pelger changed that less than three minutes into the second half, dribbling through three defenders after LS North turned the ball in its back third of the field.
Once through traffic, Pelger coolly chopped the game's first goal past Broncos goalkeeper Caroline Stanley.
South then settled in and looked to protect its one-goal lead, a tough proposition with Marlborough lurking about.
In the 56th minute, the junior standout, who already has committed to the University of Nebraska, powered through four people and got in on Falcons goalkeeper Shelby Buttron. But the junior keeper raced off her line and kneed Marlborough's shot back out of the box.
"I just went after it," Buttron said. "I didn't want to take any chances. It's my ball."
The very next minute, though, Buttron, who is coming off knee surgery and suffered a concussion late in basketball season, could only watch as Marlborough buried a rocket from 20 yards out at the far post.
And she wasn't done.
In the final 10 minutes, Marlborough banged another point-blank shot off the left post and got in on Buttron unchallenged again when a long pass hopped over freshman Emilee Clark's head on a bounce.
South's defense recovered well but not before Marlborough got two cracks at Buttron. In the shootout, the first nine players all buried their PKs.
South's shots were all crisp, essentially unsavable goals.
LS North, meanwhile, had a few sloppy efforts but kept slipping shots past Buttron.
"I was frustrated," Buttron said. "I didn't get enough touch on one shot and then they kicked one right at me, but I missed it with my feet. I was real frustrated, but it ended good."
Tied at four in the shootout, junior midfielder Kaylee Sextro trotted into the box from the center circle and rocketed a shot into the right side without blinking.
"I was pretty confident about it," Sextro said. "Everyone is going to be a little nervous about being the fifth shooter, and I haven't done it a lot, but I felt confident I would make it."
Suddenly, all the pressure was on LS North's Sydney Owens, who had made a habit of blasting restarts into South's wall during regulation.
Owens again tried to power her shot through a Falcons defender only to have Buttron gobble up the effort in her gut, handing the Broncos a loss.
"Shelby's a solid keeper, and it's a luxury to have a strong keeper in the net," Stoskopf said. "I'm happy with our defense, but it's always comforting to know we've got somebody in the nets like Shelby."
The Falcons will face tourney host St. Thomas Aquinas, which is ranked in the top 20 nationally, at 7 p.m. tonight for a berth in the Mo-Kan Classic championship.
It's also a matchup that pits Stoskopf against his mentor, Saints coach Craig Ewing. But South's head man downplayed that angle.
"It's a chance to play our way into the championship Saturday, so that's what we're looking at," Stoskopf said.
Eagles clipped in shootout Kelly Voigts dazzled in net once again for the Olathe North girls during the consolation semifinals Tuesday at the St. Thomas Aquinas Mo-Kan Challenge.
But it wasn't enough to eke out a win for the Eagles, who lost in a shootout against Blue Valley Northwest.
Voigts made a series of spectacular saves throughout the game, including consecutive denials in the shootout after the Huskies stormed in front 3-1.
Junior Alyssa Cooper, who scored North's goal in regulation, pulled the Eagles within 3-2 and Voigts kept alive her squad's chances.
"I was hoping for the high ones and I guessed right on a couple of them," Voigts said. Junior Sarah Thompson and sophomore Tomasina Bouknight failed to convert their PK chances, however, as North ultimately lost and fell to 0-2 this season.
"My PK shooters — if I had to do over again, I'd do it the same exact way," first-year Eagles coach Dave Glassman said. "I've got confidence in them, but we just came up short tonight. The game was decided long before we got to PKs, but we didn't take advantage of some opportunities in regulation."
Mindy Fischer staked BV Northwest to a 1-0 lead only 62 seconds into the game.
It seemed as if the Huskies were a lock to pad that total and pull farther away from the Eagles as the next 25 developed.
On a corner kick, BV Northwest's Molly Sylvester banged a header off the crossbar in the 11th minute.
North goalkeeper Kelly Voigts faced a few other challenges, but stood tall with the help of senior Amy Skov, junior Chanel Evans and the rest of the Eagles defenders.
The turning point in the first came in the 34th minute.
Voigts left her feet for a save as she converged on a ball with Chelsea Ramos near the top of the penalty box.
The rebound went Kayra Thompson, who fired another point-blank shot but Voigts, a senior, knocked it down too and briefly trapped it under her legs.
North managed to scramble the ball back to safety after that, but a fuse had been lit. "That lifted us up and let us know she was there for us just as much as we were for her," junior Ariel Racca said. "She is amazing I don't know what we'd do without Kelly, and we got a couple shots off after that."
Less than two minutes after that flurry, Racca sent in a restart from 40 yards out on the left side.
The ball found junior Sarah Thompson's foot at the far post, where she rolled a centering pass to junior Alyssa Cooper. Cooper beat BV Northwest freshman keeper Emily Lillard for the equalizer.
"I thought it could change the momentum, but I don't think it did in the end," Cooper said. The Huskies again controlled possession and dominated the attack in the second half.
Less than four minutes into the second half, Ramos blasted away again from 20 yards out, but Voigts dove to her left and tipped the certain goal aside for a corner kick.
The game stagnated from there before the final two minutes when BV Northwest had a golden chance to avoid a shootout.
Junior Kristy Carter took a spill running stride for stride with Bekah White up the left side.
Now, wide open White lined up a potential game-winner but again Voigts left her feet for a save.
Ellie Westemeyer whiffed on a bouncing rebound chance and Voigts later cleaned up a dangerous corner kick in the final 20 seconds.
"She's a great goalie and she's going to make some great saves every night," Glassman said. "We're disappointed in the outcome, but I didn't think we played terrible. We played OK, but it's a learning curve with a new coach and a new system."
He felt the Eagles played better tonight than in a 1-0 loss the night before against St. Teresa's.
"We're still having some trouble connecting passes together and stringing our offense along, building some attack out of the back," Glassman said. "We did a better job than the first game, but it's still not where it needs to be."
North will face the loser from tonight's Notre Dame de Sion-Lee's Summit North contest in the seventh-place game at 9 a.m. Saturday at Aquinas.
East offense explodes in opener Last year, Olathe East rode unbelievable defense to a 19-1 record and a spot in the state title game.
This year it looks like the Hawks are ready to get offensive, at least if Tuesday's season opener against Blue Valley West is any indication. Seven different Hawks scored as East rolled to a 9-2 victory against the Jaguars at the College Boulevard Activity Center.
"It was totally unexpected, that kind of offense," East coach Terry Hair said. "But the girls played with a lot of enthusiasm and passion and started gaining a lot of confidence in what they were doing."
Darci Miller and Claire Nicholson, both sophomores, led the way with two goals apiece. Regan Murphy, Skylar Baker, Kaitlyn Atkins, Kerry McWhirter and Mallory Flatt also found the net for the Hawks, who were never really challenged.
East led 2-0 after 10 minutes and 4-1 at halftime. The Hawks extended the lead to 7-1 before the Jaguars scored a second time.
Becca Skillman and Kim Feyh combined for the win in goal.
Mo-Kan Classic at St. Thomas Aquinas First round Lee's Summit North (Morgan Marlborough); Olathe South (Kaitlynn Pelger). Records: LS North 2-0, Olathe South 0-0 Consolation semifinals BV NORTHWEST 2, OLATHE NORTH 1 (so) BV Northwest won shootout 3-2. Olathe North (Alyssa Cooper); Blue Valley Northwest (Mindy Fischer). Records: Olathe North 0-2, BVNW 1-1.