Lady Dogies are on fire

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Lady Dogies are on a roll. Four shutouts in a row, nine different players scoring against Douglas and a first ever defeat of the Buffalo Lady Bison are the highlights from last weekend, and head coach Cami Willyard’s crew is just getting started.
On Friday, the Lady Dogies hosted the No. 3-ranked Buffalo Lady Bison. In the squad’s first meeting, Newcastle had a slow start but came back in the second half to tie the contest 3-3. This time, they came out strong putting three points on the scoreboard by halftime, and held Buffalo scoreless throughout.
“I can’t even tell you how proud I am of the girls. We just put everything we’ve been working on together against Buffalo,” Willyard beamed. “We were three for three shots on goal in the first half, so we were efficient.”
The Lady Dogies dominated the first half and Willyard admitted being surprised that her squad had only gotten off three shots throughout those 40 minutes. 
At just a minute and a half into the contest, Newcastle maneuvered a dangerous ball in the box. Gabby McVay shot it off the post and Claire Beastrom was right there to knock it in for the Lady Dogies’ first goal of the day.
Halfway through the first, Beastrom once again found the back of the net to put her team up 2-0.
“Claire was about 30 yards out, and she used the wind to put it in the top left corner of the net,” Willyard explained. “It was a pretty shot that was just well placed.”
With short time remaining in the first, Lara Lopez sent a cross pass to MacKenzie Conzelman on the right side at the back post, finishing high to take a 3-0 lead into the mid game break. 
“Going up 3-0 was like a mirror of the first time we played them, only this time we were in the lead,” Willyard said. “It was a little scary so I just told them to be proud and be confident, but don’t be satisfied.”
“They played so well in that first half and let’s talk about that defensive line,” she said. “As a unit, I’ve not seen them play like that all year long. They don’t get the glory but they won the game for us for sure, because they shut down the No. 1 goal scorer in the state.”
LaKacee Lipp, Caitlyn Perhinger, Emily Beastrom and Alaina Steveson are the crew that make up the Lady Dogies’ back line. These four also had the added pressure of playing the entire 80 minutes without a break, defending against two of the most productive scorers in 3A, and they rose to the challenge.
For the first 11 or 12 minutes of the second half, Buffalo came out firing, trying to make up their deficit, but Newcastle was having none of it. 
“Angel [Perez] had some really good saves during that part of the game,” Willyard said. “Then we found our composure and started finding feet and playing our game so possession swung our way for the last 28 minutes.” 
The Lady Dogies rode the momentum of their win on Friday into their makeup contest against Douglas on Monday at Schoonmaker Field. 
It was a whirlwind of scoring in the first 10 minutes of play with Newcastle putting five points on the board. Claire Beastrom opened up the scoring frenzy in less than two minutes after kickoff with the first goal of the game, assisted by MacKenzie Conzelman. A minute later Conzelman found the back of the net and then within a minute and a half, goalkeeper Perez booted the ball down the field to Conzelman who took a touch and shot the ball over the Bearcat goalie’s head into the back corner for her second goal of the contest bringing the Lady Dogie lead to 3-0. 
“We knew that Douglas is struggling a bit this year, so I challenged the girls to get something out of the game,” Willyard said. “We had a goal of finding the sideline, the wings and the corners, and also to finish.”
The ladies took the challenge to heart and from the start dictated the way the game was going to be played and didn’t allow the Bearcats to gain any confidence throughout.
Alaina Laurence was the next Lady Dogie to score and showed off her skills by launching a shot from 35 yards out into the back of the net at the 32:26 mark.
Gabby McVay was good on one of her three shots on goal 10:30 into the game, which extended the Lady Dogie lead to 5-0.
At that point, Willyard encouraged her girls to get other players opportunities to score, and to challenge themselves to attempt to score with a header. 
McKenzie Rose, Shawnee Miles and Zariah Ward each got their first goal of the season. Rose got hers with 18:01 to play in the first half, Miles was first to score in the second half when she found the back of the net from an assist by Laurence at the 31:53 mark, and Ward scored the last goal of the contest with 2:50 to play.
Caitlyn Pehringer made the last goal of the first half with 13:48 to play, and Kyah Miller scored the ninth goal of the contest at 28:10 to go.
Perez completed her fourth consecutive shutout, and had three saves on the day.
“We had nine girls score against Douglas, and there were six assists on those 10 goals, which is an improvement for us this year,” Willyard nodded. “We were able to sub freely and it was fun for a lot of girls to have opportunities that they don’t always get.”
The Lady Dogies’ next challenge is a rematch against Riverton on the road Friday. In their first meeting, Newcastle got the better of them 2-0, however Willyard stated that the Lady Wolverines are playing well right now. 
“They only lost to Buffalo 2-1 and they tied Lander who is ranked No. 1 in the state right now,” she stated. “They are pretty hot right now, so it will be a good game for us.”
Then on Monday, May 3, the ladies will travel to Torrington for a makeup game against the Lady Trailblazers.