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Just one stop: Albemarle girls soccer punches title game ticket in PK’s

Photo: Ryan Yemen

It was a slow sloppy mess at Glen Allen High on Friday morning, but neither the soaking conditions nor the adversity of an unfortunate bounce got in the way of the Albemarle girls soccer team having a good time on the road facing Freeman. After 20 minutes of overtime couldn’t break up a 1-1 tie, the Patriots went to penalty kicks and saw all five of their shooters find the back of the net, and their goalie Jaya Daniel come up with the one stop they needed. With the win, Albemarle secured its place in the Class 5A championship for the second time in three years, forcing coach Amy Sherrill to display a jubilant slip and slide maneuver in the water puddled grass after the handshake line.

 

“It’s been a really long time since we’ve gone to PK’s,” Sherrill said.. “I wasn’t the head coach whenever it happened last. To finish the game that way was special. We knew our keeper would get us at least one and also knew all five of our girls could put theirs in. So really it was just a matter of which one of theirs was Jaya going to save.”

 

As it turns out, Daniel flipped the script pressure wise on both Freeman and her fellow teammates. After Kora Jillions, Emily Ward and Savannah Alexander scored for the Patriots while Lauren Hargrove and Clemson-bound Lauren Bruns scored for the Rebels, Daniel got the opportunity to break things open. Her diving save to her right on the third PK gave the Patriots the advantage.

 

And with Avery Dougald scoring on Albemarle’s fourth PK, Megan Schantz stepped up and went far left to a wide open goal to seal the deal at 5-3.

 

“We definitely wanted to put the pressure on them early and we did that,” Schantz said. “We wanted to make it so they wouldn’t have the last kick. And I’ve been practicing PK’s a lot so I didn’t feel the pressure there.”

 

The 100 minute battle before PK’s was tense. The Patriots took a 1-0 lead with 8:14 left in the first off of a corner kick. After it appeared that the Rebels defense had things under control defensively, Ward was able to step in and clean up off a rebound and score her first goal of the season.

 

“On that corner kick I just started on the line and there was this big scrum in the box,” Ward said. “Then the ball came right to me and I had the time, just lined and kicked it and it happened to go right over the goalie’s head.”

 

Freeman’s goal came midway through the second half. After the Patriots defense swatted away a a pair of corners just a few minutes early, a well struck ball from the the Rebels defense took an interesting bounce at midfield to open things up for Bruns on a wide open break away. Bruns buried her shot to tie things up at 1-1 with 22.:11 left to play.

 

“We’ve had to overcome similar situations this season,” Ward said. “We knew that we could defend them. We just all had to come back together and say ‘Hey, we’re going to finish this out, we won’t let this get us down.’ We came back out and finished the job.”

 

From there, Daniel and the Albemarle defense were busy with Bruns and Albemarle’s Madeline St. Amand and Jillions kept things interesting on the other side of the field. Jillions had an opportunity with six minutes to play but Hargrove took a risk and stepped up to stop her from making a move successfully.

 

In the first two five minute overtimes Albemarle had to defend a pair of corners and spent most of the time just keeping Freeman from good striking distance. The two five minute golden goal overtimes to follow produced little fruit to set up the dramatic showing in penalty kicks.

 

Albemarle will face Deep Run in the championship game as it also needed PK’s (4-2) break up its 1-1 tie to advance past Stonefield in the game that followed. The Patriots and Wildcats will play on the field turf at Hermitage High on Saturday at 10 p.m.

 

“This is an amazing feeling,” Ward said. “It definitely feels like all the work, the grinding in the offseason and in practice is all paying off.”

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