Friday, May 29, 2009
Fate leans Salem's way in Region IV girls soccer semis
The Spartans' Bre Kawa comes up with enough PK saves to get her team into the state tourney.
SAM DEAN The Roanoke Times
Salem's Megan Kennedy (left) and Taylor Davis (right) celebrate the Spartans' second goal with Kim Elmore.
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Odds are against the goalie when a soccer game is so knotted up it is forced to be decided by penalty kicks. She is just one person and the space around her grows huge.
Salem's Bre Kawa opted to guess. Shot after shot, she moved before Blacksburg's shooters got their foot on the ball. Sometimes she dove right out of the way of the ball. Sometimes she dove in the right direction, but not quite far enough.
But she made one stop in the first round of penalty kicks to equal Blacksburg's Kelsey Fuller and force a second round of kicks -- this time do-or-die. Salem's Megan Kennedy and Blacksburg's Lauren Cusimano scored in the first round, then Salem's Brittney Ingvaldsen led off the second round scoring in the high right corner.
When Blacksburg finisher Rebecca Cornelius kicked it toward the left side of the net, Kawa was already there to catch the ball and seal a 3-2 win in the semifinals of the Region IV girls soccer tournament at Bogle Field.
While Salem took the long route to today's regional final and the state playoffs, Hidden Valley used a more direct path with a 12-0 thumping of Abingdon in the earlier semifinal, which also dodged the heavy rain that doused the Salem-Blacksburg tilt.
"There's a lot of pressure," Kawa said. "We've practiced it [penalty kicks] a lot, I'm pretty confident in our team, that they are going to score. ... I just go to one side, I get a signal from my coach, and just guess."
"It's kind of like flipping a coin," said Salem coach Josh Jones. "You just commit to one side. ... On penalty kicks if a goalie makes one or two saves, you're doing your job."
The Spartans (16-3-2) had led 1-0 at halftime on a goal by Kim Elmore, but Blacksburg's Gracie Sims came back after halftime and scored twice in the first five minutes to give the Bruins the 2-1 lead.
"We've sort of been the team that's fought out from behind all year," said Blacksburg coach Travis Eschenmann, whose team finished 14-4-2, battling Salem (16-3-2) to about as even a season as possible. The teams went 1-1-1 in their first three meetings before Thursday's match. "I'm proud that we got back in the mix there."
But with 10 minutes left in regulation, Salem's Claire Sexton fed Elmore in front of the net for the tying score.
The game remained tied at 2 through two five-minute overtimes, and two more five-minute sudden-death overtimes before reaching penalty kicks.
Sims, Cornelius, Sara Schmidt and Cusimano all scored for Blacksburg in the first round of penalty kicks. Megan Kennedy, Jade Andrade, Brittney Ingvaldsen and Sexton scored for the Spartans.
"The big thing tonight is that we put ourselves in the state tournament," Salem coach Josh Jones said. "I'm just glad we get to keep playing."
It took Maddy Elder just six minutes to score a hat trick in Thursday's other quarterfinal at Bogle Stadium.
The Titans' senior finished with four goals and an assist as her team secured a berth in the Group AA state playoffs and in today's regional final against Salem.
"We're ready," Elder said. "We're going to states. We want to go undefeated in the playoffs. We're prepared."
Anna Moir, Haley Cutright and Reagan Dayberry each scored a goal and had two assists for Hidden Valley (19-1-1), and Lacey Todd had a goal and an assist.
Sally Creekmoore, Kendall Lynch, Emily Karras and Ellen Hurley also scored for the Titans.
Hannah Radford, Maya Shende and Claire Sibley had assists.
Hannah Carroll made 10 saves for Abingdon (12-3-1).
