Ladies nab first conference win

The Lady Dogie Soccer team wrapped up a strong week of conference play, routing the Torrington Trailblazers 3-0 on Thursday, then pushing the Lady Bison of Buffalo to an overtime shootout where they narrowly missed the victory in sudden death on Saturday. Head coach Cami Willyard was pleased with the growth her young team has shown throughout the season and is looking forward to seeing them progress even more in the coming weeks.

“Even though Thursday’s game wasn’t all that pretty, the girls took care of business against Torrington,” Willyard said. “Then we played so well in Buffalo, and if we can keep that kind of play up, we have a good chance of getting a spot in the state tournament.”

It was cold and windy as action got under way at Schoonmaker Field on Thursday against the Lady ‘Blazers, and Newcastle High School’s Lady Dogies had the wind at their backs in the first half. Given that the two teams had played previously at the beginning of the season and Willyard knew what to anticipate from them, she opted to start Christine Swentesky on the field, rather than in the goal.

“We thought it would be best for the team to start Christine on the field, and Kathryn [Huber] has done a great job the few times she has stepped in the goal, so we went that route for this game,” Willyard explained. “We felt pretty confident and wanted to get off to a strong start to take advantage of the wind.”

The Lady Dogies indeed dominated on offense in the first 40 minutes of the contest, totalling nine shots on goal, two of which found the back of the net to give Newcastle a 2-0 lead going into the break.

Hailey Beastrom got her team on the board in the 16th minute of the contest on an impressive boot from about 40 yards out.

“After watching the film, it looks like the ball deflected off one of their players into the goal,” Willyard said. “But to be able to put it on-frame from that far out is pretty outstanding.”

With a point on the board, the Lady Dogies settled in, and about 10 minutes after Beastrom’s finish, Swentesky took advantage of a misclear by the Lady ‘Blazers to take a one-touch with her non-dominant right foot to find the back of the net from about 25 yards out to go into the half up 2-0 over Torrington.

“It was great to go into the half with a two-point lead,” Willyard said. “We weren’t playing the cleanest game, though, so our goal in the second half was to play to feet more and to just have more control and to possess the ball better, and I felt like we did that.”

At about halfway through the second frame of play, Victoria Pehringer sent a nice shot on goal which the ‘Blazer keeper deflected. Fortunately, Aiko Miyamoto was right where she needed to be to gather the deflection and send it into the back of the goal.

“That was just so awesome,” Willyard said, smiling. “She was just in the right place and was doing what she needed to be doing, so it was pretty cool.”

Despite going against the wind in the second half, the Lady Dogies hung on to shut out the ‘Blazers, 3-0, thereby notching their first conference win.

On Saturday, the Lady Dogies traveled to Buffalo to take on the Lady Bison, and, according to Willyard, outplayed the Johnson County team from the onset.

As has been the trend, the first half was a strong one for the Lady Dogies. They traded shot for shot against the Lady Bison, with each getting off three shots on goal.

Beastrom was able to finish on one of Newcastle’s three shots to find the back of the net in the 23rd minute of play to take a 1-0 lead. She took a long shot, which the keeper collected and sent back. Beastrom regained possession, dribbled about 25 yards and shot again from just outside the 18-yard mark to finish.

“It was an awesome shot and I was just really happy for her,” Willyard said. “She absolutely dominated the middle of the field for the whole game, and it really was one of her better games of the season offensively and defensively.”

The Lady Dogies went into the half with the 1-0 lead after Swentesky had three saves in the first frame of play. With the goal of playing strong for an entire game, rather than just the first half, Willyard’s crew rose to the challenge when they returned to the pitch.

With about 15 minutes to play, the Lady Bison were fouled just outside the Dogies’ 18 yard mark. Swentesky was able to save the PK, but another Lady Bison was on hand to follow through on the deflection to tie the game at 1-1.

An Achilles heel of the Lady Dogies has been giving up goals back to back, and two minutes later Buffalo snuck another one past Swentesky to go up 2-1.

Willyard chose to pull Swentesky out of the goal at that point to give her team the best opportunity to score. With about six minutes left in the contest, she earned the Dogies a free kick from about 35 yards out. Beastrom took the shot and placed it just right for Swentesky to help the ball over the keeper with a well-placed shot off of her shoulder.

“Everybody went crazy,” Willyard said, laughing. “That was only the second time all season we have scored after being down, and I’m very proud that we were able to find a way to tie the game up.”

With a 2-2 tie at the end of regulation, the Bison and Dogies found themselves in a shootout situation to determine the winner. As per the rules, each team alternated through five players who took PKs against the other team’s keeper. When all 10 had shot, Buffalo and Newcastle were knotted up again at 2-2, as both Ruth Rose and Emi Lichtenberger made their shots as did two Lady Bison.

From there, it was sudden death. Unfortunately, Buffalo made one of their shots while Newcastle missed theirs, giving Buffalo the win.

“That was a heart-breaker to lose,” Willyard said. “After the girls played so well against them, it would have been great to get the win!”

This week the Lady Dogies have only one game to prep for as they will travel to Worland on Friday to take on the Lady Warriors.