Ladies end just short of goal

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Lady Dogies started the season with some lofty expectations having set their goal to play for a trophy the Saturday of the State Tournament. Head coach Bryce Hoffman and his young team made a run for qualification at the end of the season and punched their ticket to the Big Dance, however, once there they got there they ran into the buzz saw of the Cody Fillies, then lost a close one to the Lady Bearcats of Douglas to go two-and-out on the weekend.
The fourth seeded Lady Dogies went into their first matchup on Thursday against the Fillies who would ultimately become the state champs for the third year running. Hoffman and his squad knew they would need to bring their A-game against Cody who had lost only one game in two years, and that was to Rock Springs who went into the 4A State Tournament undefeated.
“They are a solid team and a solid program who provide some matchup issues for us,” Hoffman admitted. “But, that’s what it’s all about at the state tournament. You are going up against the best teams in the state.”
Cody jumped on the Lady Dogies right away in the sixth minute of the contest, taking the 1-0 lead. With only one player - Kassidee Jeppesen - on the field with any experience playing at the state tournament, Hoffman admitted that his team was a little overwhelmed to start. Fortunately, after the first goal, Newcastle settled in and played competitively for about 20 minutes.
The Fillies then delivered Newcastle a one-two punch as they scored back-to-back goals in the 26th and 27th minute that took the wind right out of their sails.
“That was just really deflating for the girls,” Hoffman frowned. “We had played them straight up for a decent amount of time, and I was thinking if we could get into halftime with the score still 1-0, we’d be in a good spot. However, they were able to score yet another one before the half, and going in 4-0 really put it out of reach for us.”
The Fillies would go on to score two more, and keep the Lady Dogies at bay to take the 6-0 win.
“The girls played hard and with a lot of effort, but Cody is just better than us and they executed well,” Hoffman admitted. “We were able to get some shots on goal with a couple that went just wide, so we had our chances, but they have a very good sweeper who makes it very difficult to get shots off. She’s a pest who is always in the way, she was voted the underclassmen player of the year and it’s well deserved.”
The format for the tournament is double elimination, so even though the loss meant the Lady Dogies could not play for the title, the goal of bringing home a trophy on Saturday was still within reach, so Hoffman and his crew turned their sights to the next day’s contest against Douglas.
“After the game we talked about the level we need to play at to be
at the state tournament and to use the game as a learning experience
to go into Friday with nothing to lose,” Hoffman nodded. “The girls came out focused and got on the board right away which gave us a lot of confidence.”
Hailey Wehri got her team on the board in the fourth minute, scoring off an assist by Lara Lopez.
“Hailey came out playing forward for the first time for us and she was able to get a foot on a cross pass by Lara and sent it into the goal,” Hoffman described. “It was a cool goal to start the game and it got us going.”
The rest of the first half went back and forth with goalkeeper Angel Perez making some nice saves to keep Douglas off the board. On a corner kick, the freshman made two saves in a row which Hoffman stated was a huge play by her and one that really helped the team out.
Newcastle held the 1-0 lead as the teams went into the half, but were unable to put anymore into the back of the net in the second frame of play. Unfortunately the Lady Cats scored two goals in the second half — one on a free kick and the other a penalty kick.
“It was disappointing that they were able to score in dead ball situations because I thought we defended them very well and much better than we had the first two times we played them,” Hoffman sighed. “The girls played really hard in both games, and it’s just disappointing to have the season end short of our goal.
With the 1-2 loss, the Lady Dogies ended their season, but Hoffman pointed out that the experience gained throughout the year will bode well for the future of the squad.
“We started one senior, one junior, seven sophomores and two freshmen, and they all have their eyes open now and know the level they need to play at and rise up to in the next couple of years,” he declared. “The experience they all got this year is invaluable for them going forward.”
The 2019 season started strong, but the young team did struggle through the middle. They finished well, however, securing their place at the state tournament and Hoffman was pleased with the progress his players made throughout the year.
“This was a really good season for learning what it takes to compete at the varsity level in 3A. We had ups and downs during the season, but that’s how things go,” he nodded. “The experience they gained will help them be smarter soccer players and they now know the competitive nature they need to bring to practice each day in order to compete at a high level on game day.”
Though Hoffman will not be returning as head coach next year, he expressed great confidence in the future of the program.  
“I’ve never coached a team that was so young, and some of our inconsistency of play from game-to-game showed that,” be began. “Next year, when you see them on the field it will be a lot more consistent product from week to week or game to game, and I expect to see good things from this team going forward.”
The Lady Dogies left the tournament without a team trophy, but several players received individual honors for the season. Jeppesen was named to the All-Conference and All-State teams, Claire Beastrom and Alaina Laurence received
All-Conference honors, and there were four All-Conference
Honorable Mention athletes in Lopez, Wehri, Caitlyn Pehringer, and LaKacee Lipp.