The girls Junior Varsity Gold soccer team and Hockaday Junior Varsity went head to head in their match on Jan. 25, resulting in a 1-1 tie.
The teams faced off at 5 p.m. on a mild but windy day at Hockaday’s field.
Going into the game, the girls were prepared to play without two major players, one on offense and the other in defense.
“Our keeper Annabelle broke her finger in practice on Monday, so she couldn’t catch the balls, ” forward Chloe Whittorf said.
Midfielder Charli Motsinger was chosen to step in.
“She has never played keeper before,” Whittorf said. “She did a very good job, and only let one goal in. She had great punts, and aided the team.”
The match started with both teams taking turns controlling the ball. Within the first few minutes, the team took its first, of many, attempts at the goal.
Eight minutes into the game, Hockaday scored a goal. Minutes later, center midfielder Catherine Dalton reciprocated and scored a goal tying the game.
“I was just in the right place at the right time, and my teammate did a really good job of playing through the back line, so I was able to get at the end of it,” Dalton said.
The teams spent their time trading turns with the ball towards the end of the first half. Hockaday played more physically than the team, which led to some players getting tired quickly.
“It was definitely a tough game, we got a little tired or I know I did,” Dalton said. “I think we could’ve used an extra bit of energy to get that goal in, but Hockaday wanted it as much as us.”
Heading into the second half, the team scored no more goals in the game. Despite this, the game got heated towards the end.
“I think I definitely was nervous, and I knew we needed a score,” Dalton said. “I thought we definitely had to step it up and get a goal.”
The team had played Hockaday prior to this game and had won. Despite missing key players, team captain Olivia Sterett still feels they should have won.
“They definitely brought the energy,” she said. “I think there’s still things we need to work on, but not only was our number-one goal scorer out, but so was our goal keeper. It was sad to walk away with a tie, but we could just not get our shots off.”
The team plans to work on what they felt they missed and are confident they can make a comeback.
“Coach Bagwell and I talked about how important it is that we practice shooting during our practices, so we focused on that in recent practices,” Sterret said.
Despite the tie, the team continued cheering for each other into the last seconds of the game. Sterret described how important a team bond is and how remarkable it was that the team achieved it so quickly.
“It is something that is rare to happen as quickly as it did,” Sterret said. “My favorite thing about JV Gold is our team chemistry. Whether you’re on the bench or on the field, you have a purpose. If everybody brings their A Game and puts in their purpose, we can become a team that is unstoppable.”
