Lady Knights tumble in OT to OLA, 2-0

By By Tony Krausz / assistant sports editor
Feb. 15, 2004
JACKSON In the harshest of conditions, the West Lauderdale girls' soccer team took the Our Lady Academy Crescents to the limit Saturday afternoon in the 1A-2A-3A state soccer championship game.
With two large bodies of standing water running the length of the field on both sidelines, the Lady Knights (16-5-3) fell 2-0 in double-overtime at Clinton High School.
The victory gave OLA (21-5-1) its fifth consecutive state crown, but it did not come easy against the second-year program of West Lauderdale.
"I don't know anyone in the state who can play with (OLA) for 80 minutes and have the score be 0-0," said Lady Knights coach Bud Brown. "I wish we came up on the winning end, but we had an awesome season.
"We are going to miss the six seniors we have," Brown added. "We will miss Brook Bounds, Casey Hedgepeth, Caycee Talbert, Katie Moulds, Leslie Gaddis and Megan Birmingham."
West Lauderdale goalkeeper Emmy Joyner, along with the team's four defenders (sweeper Vanessa Uhl, stopper Rachel Reeves, and wingbacks Maddie Leach and Brook Lee), did everything possible to hold OLA's offense at bay through regulation play.
Joyner stopped 23 shots in regulation play to send the game into overtime. The Sophomore goalie finished the game stopping 28-of-30 shots. West Lauderdale had three shots on goal in the contest.
The defenders pitched in as well to keep the game scoreless in regulation play. Uhl and Reeves both filled in behind Joyner when the goalkeeper left the net to deflect shots away from the goal
Leach and Bounds continuously forced OLA's attackers to the sidelines when the Crescents pushed towards the Lady Knights' goal.
"(Joyner) played an awesome game for us; she was our MVP today," Brown said. "She stopped a pile of saves. The defense also did an awesome job of helping (Joyner) out."
It was the sideline where the Crescents were finally able to break the scoreless tie in the first overtime period.
OLA winger Lauren Goulet sent a shot in from the right sideline, with 5:24 left in the first overtime. The drenched ball slipped out of Joyner's hands to give OLA a 1-0 lead.
The Crescents tallied their second goal of the game, with 7:03 left to play in the match.
OLA attacker Rachel Cranford slipped behind West Lauderdale's defense to score into an open net, after Joyner was able to stop the initial shot.
"They figured how to scoop it up," Brown said of OLA getting up and down the field by chipping the ball out of the mud. "We told (our girls) to forget about every bit of soccer we taught you. It was back to kick ball, you had to get under it and send it into the air, or it wasn't going anywhere. They were able to do that, especially in overtime."
Though West Lauderdale didn't come away with a state title in the squad's first trip to the game, Brown said he thinks the Lady Knights will be strong contenders next season.
West Lauderdale fielded a team comprised of mainly sophomores and freshmen this season.
"We will be back strong next year," Brown said. "I'm not going to make any predictions about being back here, but we are going to work hard."