IAC GIRLS SOCCER: DRYDEN RIDES OVERTIME PK GOAL TO 1-0 WIN OVER WAVERLY IN LARGE SCHOOL TITLE GAME (24 PHOTOS) (2019-10-19)
By TIM BIRNEYValley Sports ReportDRYDEN - Dryden scored on a penalty kick late in the second 10-minute overtime in a 1-0 win over Waverly here Saturday night that kept the Lady Wolverines from winning their third consecutive overall IAC Large School championship.
The Lady Wolverines, now 13-2, beat Dryden 1-0 in last year's IAC Large School title game to repeat as champions, and also beat them 2-1 in this year's season-opener. They had a six-game winning streak against the Purple Lions dating back to 2015 "” with four of the wins decided by one goal.
"Dryden is good, they're always good competition," said Waverly coach Tara Hogan.
"We fought to the very end. Even after (Dryden) scored, the girls were playing hard and putting pressure on Dryden, they weren't moping around," noted Hogan. "I give the girls a lot of credit.
"With what we're working with this year, I'm not disappointed," added Hogan. "After we lost a girl to a concussion early tonight, we were playing with 12 healthy girls. We have one girl playing through a hip injury ... with what we had, I'm happy with how we played. It's not the outcome we were expecting, but I couldn't ask anything more from the girls than playing a full 100 minutes."
Hogan said a 10-day layoff, thanks in part to receiving a forfeit from Newfield a week ago, didn't help the Wolverines.
"We haven't played in 10 days and it showed. We were rested, but still nursing some injuries," said Hogan. "We had two girls smacked right in the face (by the ball) tonight in the first three minutes of the game, that hurt us as well. It threw us off our rhythm right off the bat.
"I knew Dryden was going to come out aggressive," she noted. "It was a very physical game, and we retaliated. I have a lot of girls who can hang with them, and a few that just can't. We're not quite physically there yet.
"Taking that 10 days off, I think mentally messed with us," added Hogan. "We just couldn't get into a good groove early enough."
With 4:03 remaining in the second overtime, junior Alejandra Brotherton broke free down the middle of the field, and was dragged down in the box, resulting in a penalty kick.
Senior Ashleigh Scheinweiler deposited the PK into the back of the net to give the Lady Purple Lions the 1-0 lead.
"It was a foul, there's no question about it," said Hogan. "In my opinion, the refs let a lot more go tonight on both sides, so I wasn't anticipating that call. But a foul is a foul, and she made the correct call."
For the first 80 minutes, the majority of game was played between the 18s, with neither team having a dangerous scoring chance.
"The whole game was right here," said Hogan gesturing to middle of the field. "There were no offensive moves, or dangerous scoring chances in regulation."
Waverly's best two scoring chances came early in the first 10-minute overtime period when freshman Kennedy Westbrook pushed a shot from 15 yards out over the crossbar, then moments later had a shot toward the upper-90 curl outside of the post.
"We had Kennedy (Westbrook) back on defense in an effort to stick with some of the forwards (Dryden) was pushing forward in the first half," said Hogan.
"In the second half, they were all dropping back, so I moved Kennedy up to get some of that "˜Energizer bunny' energy going.
"She had a couple of good shots early in the first overtime," added Hogan.
Also in the first overtime, Brotherton made a strong run down the field, and with junior Melina Ortiz draped on her side, fired a hard shot from close range that hit Waverly's junior keeper Kaitlyn Clark in the chest, ricocheted off her, hit Brotherton and dropped in front of Clark, who covered it to keep the score knotted at 0-0.
"I told Kait, "˜that is the save of your career, so far," said Hogan. "Melina (Ortiz) ran the girls down in a last-ditch effort to help her out, but she got off a hard shot. It was a great save."
Waverly outshot Dryden 17-8, while the Lady Purple Lions had a 4-3 edge in corner kicks.
Clark recorded seven saves in net for the Lady Wolverines.
Waverly will host the winner of Newark Valley-Norwich game in the Class B quarterfinals in a game tentatively scheduled for Friday at 3:30 p.m.
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IN PHOTO: Waverly's Melina Ortiz. ... PHOTOS BY TIM BIRNEY.
