HIGH SCHOOL FIELD HOCKEY
AUGUST 14, 2007
Ballard, Collegiate win in OT in Apple quarterfinals
By
NATHAN CHAMBERS
BeyondTheDerby.com
Sacred Heart Academy’s Horton Field was almost engulfed in darkness when Collegiate coach Wendy Martin addressed her players after the last of the Apple Tournament quarterfinal games ended on Tuesday night.
“I’m getting too old for this,” she told them.
But the smile on Martin’s face gave her away. After 26 years on Collegiate’s sideline, she still appreciates this.
The Amazons survived two 30-minute halves and a 10-minute sudden-death overtime period before finally beating Mercy in a flick-off for a 4-3 victory.
“The kids can learn a lot about themselves in a game like this, and I think they did,” Martin said.
Ballard’s own dramatic finish in the preceding game - a 4-3 sudden-death victory over district rival Kentucky Country Day - similarly offered a lesson.
KCD scored two goals in the first three minutes and led 3-1 in the second half. But the Bruins rallied to tie it in regulation and prevailed on senior Amanda Seeley‘s goal just 2:24 into the overtime period.
“This is such a great win because it showed that we can be down two goals and still can come back,” Ballard coach Kelly Logsdon said.
Collegiate and Ballard will meet in the second semifinal at approximately 6:45 p.m. on Thursday. Defending state champion Sacred Heart - which has beaten Assumption in each of the last three Apple Tournament finals - will play the archrival Rockets in the first semifinal at 5:15 p.m.
Collegiate 4, Mercy 3
Junior goalie Cece Lindsey made three saves during the flick-off, which the Amazons won 2-1. The Jaguars missed the cage on their fifth and final stroke, which clinched Collegiate’s victory.
Lindsey (5 saves) had entered the game after halftime, replacing junior Emily Burbank (3 saves).
“They’re both doing really well,” Martin said. “Cece likes being in that position, being under pressure. She’ll rise to the occasion. She did a tremendous job with the strokes. She stopped some good, hard shots.”
Anouk Westerveld and junior Sarah Jessee beat Mercy senior goalie Katie Spradlin (7 saves) with their strokes. Senior Amy Wimsatt scored for the Jaguars.
The Amazons nearly won it in regulation. The officials waved off two Collegiate goals in the last 20 minutes of the second half, including one off the stick of senior Sara Sanders with about 3:30 left.
Sanders already had scored twice. Her first, on an assist from sophomore Taylor Hodge, gave the Amazons a 1-0 lead with 20:22 left in the first half. Mercy senior Alli Flood tied it at the 10:01 mark.
Jessee made it 2-1 when she got her stick on the ball during a scrum in front of Spradlin and poked it into the cage with 2:25 to go in the half. But the Jaguars answered again on a well-executed penalty corner in the final seconds before halftime, as Wimsatt fired the ball past Burbank after passes from seniors Katie Norris and Allison Burns.
“Mercy’s tough,” Martin said. “They kept coming back at us.”
The Jaguars moved into the lead for their first time when senior Taylor Moad scored on an assist from senior Katie Wiedmar with 15:19 left in regulation. But Collegiate soon strung together five corners, and Sanders made one count when she took a pass from Jessee and hit a rocket into the cage to tie it.
“When you give up that many corners, that’s when you get vulnerable,” Mercy coach Kelly Setser said.
Ballard 4, Kentucky Country Day 3
The Bearcats had covered Seeley well. Early in the overtime period, however, she got behind KCD’s defenders and used her speed to outrun them to the cage. She drifted to the right and then hit a shot behind junior goalie Sarah Anderson (6 saves), ending the game.
“Both of my sisters were goalies, and I know that angle throws them off balance,” said Seeley, who recently committed to Miami (Ohio) University. “That’s a very sweet spot for me.”
Seeley also had two assists, including the one that set up senior Ali Pulliam’s tying goal with 13:15 left in regulation. That came a little more than seven minutes after senior Taylor Barr started Ballard’s comeback with a goal that trimmed KCD’s lead to 3-2.
Junior goalie Lara Williams made six of her eight saves in the second half.
“I’m so proud that the girls didn’t give up,” Logsdon said. “They stuck with it, and they seemed to get better as the game went on.”
KCD coach Amy Charasika couldn’t say the same after watching two-goal leads evaporate.
“I think we were undisciplined, we lacked effort, and our game plan broke down,” she said. “We played scared and let them back in the game. There’s no way that a team should ever lose a 2-0 lead - ever. That‘s a sign of a young, inexperienced team.”
Seniors Maggie Flowers and Gray Robinson scored KCD’s first two goals in the opening 2:49, and junior Kelly Beam scored the third goal just 3:56 into the second half. Robinson and senior Christena Burell - like Seeley, a Miami (Ohio) recruit - each had an assist.
KCD still led 2-0 when senior defender Alexander Siefke, who already had single-handedly prevented a goal, was hit in the forehead by a Ballard stick with 3:17 left in the first half. The wound required stitches, and she was done for the game.
On the very next play, a corner, Ballard senior Abigail Mulloy scored.
“(Siefke’s injury) was huge,” Charasika said. “It wasn’t the end-all, be-all. But it hurt us.”
The Bearcats were wearing green headbands bearing the phrase “4 MAC” in honor of William McAnulty, who resigned from the Kentucky Supreme Court last week to focus on his fight to survive lung and brain cancer. McAnulty is the father of KCD assistant coach Patrick McAnulty.
