Ladies give Bison a run for their money

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
After several consecutive road games, the Lady Dogies hosted the Lady Bison of Buffalo last Friday. The Lady Bison came to town boasting a 5-0 conference record, a second-place ranking in the state and a first seed in the 3A East Conference.
On paper, this matchup heavily favored the Johnson County team, but Newcastle rose to the challenge to force Buffalo to fight for each of their three points on the day.
“It was a really close game, and it was 1-1 for more time than it was anything else,” head coach Bryce Hoffman began. “They didn’t score their second goal until the 57th minute.”
The game got off to a bit of a frightening start, however, as Buffalo came out strong and had the Lady Dogies on their heels. They jumped out to a quick one to zero lead when they scored in the third minute of play.
“It was a little scary given that they are the number two team in the state who are playing pretty confident right now,” Hoffman admitted. “It would have been pretty easy for the girls to fold under that pressure, but they didn’t.”
Indeed, the Lady Dogies took it in stride and two minutes later, tied the ball game at 1-1. Claire Beastrom brought the ball up the sideline and was fouled in the box. Caitlyn Pehringer got the call to launch the penalty kick, which she executed perfectly.
“Caitlyn stepped up and put the PK in the bottom left-hand corner, just like you like to see it,” Hoffman smiled. “We’ve shot a lot of those this year, so she felt pretty confident stepping up and putting it away for us.”
After the rather frenzied scoring attacks, both teams calmed down and settled in for a pretty intense soccer game. According to Hoffman, the Lady Bison have a couple of individual players who created
challenges for his team defensively, and thwarted the Lady Dogies time and again on offense.
“A lot of the things that work for us offensively against other teams, just weren’t working against them,” he stated. “Our normal style of play was ineffective and they turned us away several times.”
Newcastle had another good chance to score in the 15th minute when Isabel Frank followed a shot by Pehringer off of a corner kick. The goalie lost the ball behind her, Frank followed it and kicked the ball in. However, the official interpreted that the goalie had the ball in her hands, so it was waved off.
“It would have been great to go up 2-1, but I still felt pretty good about our chances going into the half 1-1,” Hoffman nodded. “The total shot count of the game was pretty even with them only having eight shots on goal and we were right in there with six.”
Buffalo scored their go-ahead goal in a scramble situation that culminated with the ball landing right in front of a Bison’s feet while Newcastle was out of position. From there, the two teams played out the remaining 23 minutes in a back and forth battle. The Lady Dogies put some good shots on goal, however, the goalkeeper was able to make some great saves to keep them from tying the score again.
“Buffalo scored their last one in the 77th minute and that was the silencer on us because there just wasn’t enough time in the game to get that back,” Hoffman sighed. “But the girls played really hard, the effort was there from all of them, and many just played really tough. They could have quit after their first goal, but they competed. It wasn’t a one-sided affair, and we were definitely in the game right up until the end. We made them earn everything they got, that’s for sure.”
The Lady Dogies had the weekend and one day of practice to prepare for their rematch against Buffalo on Tuesday. Hoffman stated that his team had made some adjustments which he hoped would be more effective against the Lady Bison.
Newcastle will finish out their regular season this Friday and Saturday with home contests against Torrington and Rawlins respectively. The noon Saturday game will be the senior celebration for the team.