After 80 minutes of defensive effort and execution, girls soccer head coach Seth Wilber pulled his troops together before the start of the extra period, and urged them to not let Wednesday’s home matchup against Troy Buchanan get away from them because someone made a mistake.
Unfortunately for East, Wilber proved prophetic two minutes into overtime.
Troy took advantage of a Lady Lion defensive mistake, and steered a shot into the back of the net, for a 1-0 Lady Trojan win.
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“It’s a tough way to lose a match, that’s for sure,” Wilber said. “Our girls have prided themselves on being incredibly strong on defense. And we made one mistake, and Troy buried it. It’s disappointing.”
The winning goal was scored by Troy junior Hunter Wagoner, on a play where freshman teammate Jamie Gilley was able to move the ball forward without passing because no East defender pressed her.
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“We we’re dropping back and dropping back, and I don’t know why,” Wilber said. “We let her keep going and nobody stopped her. Then she made a great pass and (Wagoner) just got it in the net. It was a mistake.”
What made Troy’s game-winner tougher to swallow was East almost scored moments earlier on a similar play.
Lady Lion forward Hailey Rodgers took a pass from a teammate deep in Troy’s end. Rodgers centered a pass to teammate Miranda Huebner, who found herself open in front with only one Lady Trojan defender around her.
It seemed that Huebner had a clear shot against an out-of-position Troy goalkeeper, but the sophomore midfielder made one move too many, and allowed the Troy defender to get close enough to block her shot and send the ball the other way.
“She would’ve scored,” Wilber said. “We were trying out a new formation, and it was the first time we tried it in a real game. It almost worked. We almost sprung free for a game-winner. But we’re still kind of learning how to move and where to be.”
The 1-0 loss marred what truly was a remarkable defensive performance by the Lady Lions. Troy boasts several solid scorers and none of them were able to get a free run, until that final play, because East’s defenders just refused to give the Lady Trojans any room.
“Those girls in the back have been (phenomenal),” Wilber said. “(Defenders) Megan (Reis), Bree (Andert), and Jordan (Gnolfo) have played so great for us on the backend all season.”
Gnolfo actually started in net for East, and made several outstanding saves in the first half. She then moved to a regular defender position for the second half, allowing sophomore Taylor Edwards to take over in goal for the final 40 minutes-plus overtime.
Edwards was also sensational in goal, making two brilliant saves on point-blank attempts by Troy junior Kelsey VanZant.
VanZant also set up a chance for Gilley that hit the post early in the second half that could’ve given Troy the lead then.
“We’re fortunate to have two really good goalkeepers,” Wilber said. “They’re both so smart and so tough. It’s a nice problem to have, trying to figure out which one to play.”
The loss dropped East to 5-4 on the season. But there will be no rest for the weary, as the Lady Lions will be right back in action on Friday, April 8, when they’ll host Carbondale (Ill.) High in a non-conference matchup as part of the Parkway College Showcase.
The annual event is one of the top girls soccer tournaments in the Midwest, and features nearly 40 high school and college teams competing in matches all over the area.
East’s matchup with Carbondale will kickoff at 6 p.m. Then on Saturday, the Lady Lions will play Waterford (Wis.) High at 12:45 p.m., at the Anheuser-Busch Soccer Park in Fenton.
“It should be fun,” Wilber said. “We’re excited about it. And we hope to go out there and do very well this weekend.”