Championship-caliber teams usually find a way to survive, even though they might face a deficit in the early stages of a contest.
It happened
on Monday night (Feb. 8), when defending 6A Conference state soccer runner-up
Chandler Hamilton strolled into Xavier Prep’s Petznick Field, with the hometown
Gators carrying some title hopes of their own.
Xavier began
the match by doing just about everything right. The Gators led 2-0 at halftime
after goals by sophomore Eva Allen and freshman Talia Coury. At virtually every
instance at every spot on the field, Xavier was the aggressor, beating the
Huskies to the ball. The Gators were acting like they wanted to win and were
playing like it.
At the
mid-game break, something happened. Whatever words were imparted by the
Hamilton coaches touched a nerve, got the Huskies’ attention.
They came
out like a completely different team and simply put, took control of the game.
They were as aggressive as Xavier had been in the first half, maybe even more
so.
The Huskies
tied it at 2-2 with goals only 1:29 apart and actually took a 3-2 lead about
three minutes later, but it was waved off due to an offsides call by the
officials.
Xavier
strung it out to overtime (two 10-minute periods). Hamilton took the lead on a
goal by Savannah Nelson with 5:19 left in the first OT period and rode it to a
3-2 victory.
Hamilton
remained unbeaten at 4-0, while Xavier, its Premier Region rival, slipped to
2-2.
Allen and
Coury led the way for Xavier. Allen also had an assist on Coury’s goal and
senior Megan McGinty had an assist on Allen’s goal. Senior Ololade Adebayo did a solid job trying
to take the ball away from her opponents most of the way.
The Gators
will have plenty of time to regroup for their next match, on Feb. 19 at Sandra
Day O’Connor in north Phoenix.
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