Girls – The Patriots traveled to East Jackson Thursday to take on the Eagles in a region soccer match-up. Once the dust settled OC came home with a hard to swallow 3-2 loss.
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| Sarah Chastain defending against an East Jackson striker. |
OC controlled the ball well for about 25 minutes of the first half. East Jackson started moving the ball more and more into OC territory until Oglethorpe was spending most of their time defending the last minutes of the half. With three minutes remaining East Jackson passed the ball over everyone’s head and their striker got behind OC’s defense. Jeri Edwards, an OC defender, ran down the Eagle striker and tackled her in the box resulting in a penalty kick for EJ, and a yellow card for Edwards. This put the Eagles up 1-0.
East Jackson tried the long pass again with 20 seconds left in the half but OC’s keeper, Rebecca LaFleur, made a remarkable save to prevent another EJ score.
Just two minutes in to the second half OC had a throw in just past the mid-field stripe on the East Jackson side. Laura Abney drove the ball down the left hand side and centered towards the goal to Alexis Miller. Miller’s shot was blocked by Eagle defenders but they didn’t clear the ball from in front of the goal. Abney, by now, had moved to the ball taking a shot that scored OC’s first goal of the game.
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| Jeri Wilcox |
Following the restart after OC’s score, EJ kept the ball in OC’s end of the field. OC had trouble clearing the ball past mid-field. At the 31 minute mark EJ managed to score their second goal of the game putting the Eagles ahead 2-1.
For the next thirteen minutes both OC and EJ moved the ball up and down the field with neither team gaining an advantage. With 17 minutes remaining in the game Bailey Pledger, on one of OC’s trips towards the Eagles’ goal managed to get a shot off but it went wide. OC recovered the goal kick moving the ball towards the EJ goal when the ball went out giving OC a corner kick. East Jackson cleared the ball with another long pass to their awaiting striker who again got behind OC’s defense and scored the Eagles third goal of the game.
OC, fighting back after the restart, kept the ball in East Jackson’s end of the field the majority of the time. At the 12 minute mark Abney moved the ball to just inside the Eagle box and scored OC’s second goal. Despite several OC attempts, the Eagles managed to keep OC from scoring the equalizer to take the win.
The Patriots 4-2 (0-2 region) plays Jackson Co at home next Tuesday, March 13th.
Boys – Soccer, like most games, is a team sport that takes everyone doing their job to win. And, like most team sports, there are, occasionally, standout players. In the game against East Jackson the MVP Thursday night was keeper Zammy Mendez. But for Mendez the Eagles would have cleaned OC’s clock instead of losing in a game that went to the penalty shootout.
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| Zammy Mendez stopping a East Jackson shot. |
OC was playing without center-mid Sean Atkinson due to Atkinson receiving a red card in the Social Circle game last Friday. Coach Jim Norton made the decision to play a defensive game against East Jackson to try and prevent them from scoring. However, at the 25 minute mark the Eagles managed to get behind OC’s defense and put the ball in the net.
Ten minutes later, however, OC was pressing hard in front of the East Jackson goal when the ball bounced out to Joshua Tuttle who put it in the back of the net equalizing the game 1-1.
Just two minutes later, Mendez somehow or other (you never know where these guys – keepers - pull this stuff from) stopped an East Jackson shot on goal that bounced off Mendez’s hands, and, has he was falling, got another hand on the ball to prevent it from going into the goal. Shortly after this, time ran out for the first half.
The entire second half was pretty much played in OC’s end of the field. Mendez made several beautiful stops and OC defenders repeatedly cleared the ball from OC’s end of the field but East Jackson kept coming back. That’s how it works in a purely defensive mode. But Coach Norton’s strategy paid off when the game ended in a 1-1 tie, which sent the game into overtime.
In soccer overtime consists one five minute period, and if needed, a second five minute period. Neither team scored in the two overtime periods so the game went to a penalty shootout.
The penalty shootout entails five free kicks made alternately by each team. OC went first and the first kick by Ezra Underwood went wide. EJ’s first kick went wide, too. Up next was Griffin Giles who put his kick in the bottom left hand side of the goal. East Jackson tied with a successful kick past Mendez. Eli Johnson, up next for the Patriots, put his kick past the Eagle keeper to put OC up by one. This brought up East Jackson’s third attempt. The Eagle’s kicker sent the ball to the right but Mendez had guessed correctly going that way, too, resulting in a blocked shot, which gave East Jackson their second miss.
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| Nick Sanchez battling an East Jackson player. |
Code Flores, who is right handed, lined up to the right of the ball as if to kick with his left foot. This was a ruse, Flores kicked the ball with the outside of his right foot putting the ball in the left back corner of the goal for OC’s third straight penalty shootout goal. The Eagles answered with a goal of their own which meant that if OC made their last penalty kick the game was theirs, if not, then East Jackson would get one more chance to tie the game.
Senior Cody Boarders was the last OC kicker. Number five of five and if his shot goes in OC wins. This is like having the bases loaded in the top of the ninth with a pitch count of 3-2. Something big is about to happen.
Boarders calmly went up to the penalty mark waiting for the referee’s whistle. As soon as the referee gave the signal Boarders moved forward, kicked the ball and watched it go in to the back of the net. OC wins.
But the night belonged to Zammy Mendez, who made outstanding plays in front of the goal during the game and stopped a penalty kick during the shootout.
Oglethorpe, who is now 3-4 (1-1 region), takes on region foe Jackson Co at home next Tuesday, March 13th.
