South Lewis 2, Sackets Harbor 1
If I'm making the trip from the Utica area to the Frontier League, there better be some drama, some weird, some crazy, right? Between comebacks, back and forth action, the always-interesting PK, shots being saved by people who aren't the keeper, and an ending I may just never see again... today didn't disappoint.
More good timing struck in this one. Showed up with just over 22 minutes left in the 1st half and the game scoreless. That didn't last long. Sackets got on the board first - Samantha Menapace put one over the heads of the Falcons & Diana Dotson beat everyone to it. She finished it off, giving them the 1-0 lead with 21:57 left in the half. Although South Lewis really started to challenge in the last 10 minutes of the half, the Patriots held their 1 goal halftime lead. That also didn't long. South Lewis challenged, and there was a pile a few yards away from goal. A Sackets defender committed the Sect. 3 girls soccer equivalent of the #1 party foul - no handballs in the box! Sounds dirty... anyway. South Lewis was awarded a PK, and Jayne Strigle knew exactly what to do with it. Something along the lines of knocking it through the pipes, thus tying it up at 1 with 33:10 left. Both teams had their chances throughout. At some points, I thought Sackets would grab the lead. At others, South Lewis. Hell, at others, I thought it would stay 1-1 and I should get to the football game early. Reegan Domagala answered my pressing question with the tally to break the tie for South Lewis. There was another scrum around goal, and a shot was put up by Alexis Olmstead. That deflected away, but Domagala was there for the cleanup, giving South Lewis a 2-1 lead with 12:05 left.
Now for the fun. Sackets was attacking throughout the last few minutes, but the Falcons were doing enough of a job holding them off... for a while. Over the last 25 seconds, Sackets was awarded a free kick 45 yards away from goal. South Lewis GK Miranda Rys, solid all the way through, misplayed that one and let it one-hop over her head. Now with under 10 seconds showing, it appeared as if the Patriots would tie this one up late, and I wouldn't be able to catch it because of the football game. South Lewis' #5 (an unnamed hero to me, since I don't have rosters) came from out of nowhere and booted the ball away from the goal when it was about a yard away from the goal line. Game over, right? Not so fast. A Sackets player got a foot on the ball about 35 yards away from goal with around 3 seconds left. A South Lewis defender tried to head it away around the 6 - but they headed it in the wrong direction, bouncing it off the noggin by Rys into the goal for Sackets. One problem... time ran out about a second before the ball went through. The head connected with the ball just before the buzzer went off, and according to fútbol rules, the ball's gotta go through by the time it hits all zeroes. A second late = South Lewis improves to 2-5-1 with their 2-1 W over 3-6 Sackets Harbor.
#NumbersDontLie - Pretty evenly matched. Shots were nearly dead-even, as were saves. Like Thursday, the only noticeable difference is non-save keeper touches. South Lewis GK Miranda Rys cleared the air 10 times with non-save GK touches to go with the 7 saves she's credited for. Sackets GK Lauren Harrienger had the same amount of saves, but only 3 non-save touches. How even this game was can be shown in the stats.
Shots - South Lewis 9, Sackets Harbor 8
Corners - Sackets 4, South Lewis 1
Saves - 7 apiece
GK Touches - South Lewis 10, Sackets Harbor 3
Goal Kicks - South Lewis 9, Sackets Harbor 6
No comments:
Post a Comment