St. Anne’s-Belfield coach Mark O’Donnell was happy with his team’s focus on Tandem Friends’ Leci Irvin. For the first 70 minutes of play his team held Irvin off the board and as a result, had a one goal lead heading into the home stretch.
“We kept Leci Irvin from scoring in the first 70 minutes and that’s what we wanted to do,” O’Donnell said. “We had her for the first seven eighths of the game and she scored their third and fourth goals. That’s a special player.”
Irvin, an All-VISSA first teamer last season for the defending Division 2 state champions saved her best for last, scoring a pair of goals in a matter of a few minutes to dig her squad out of a hole and put them out front. And thanks to a Kate Moody goal in the final minutes of play, Tandem completed an impressive come-from-behind victory to top STAB, 5-3.
“That’s a Division 1 team we were playing so I think we were a bit intimidated early by their speed,” said Badgers coach Brian Williams. “In the second half we talked and made some changes and they were effective.”
In the first half St. Anne’s noticeable speed and aggressive play put them out in front of Tandem 3-1. That changed In the second half though as the Badgers adjusted to the Saints’ style of play. With the defensive issues behind them, it was only a matter of time before the offense came to life.
Sure enough, Irvin was able to take advantage of the attention paid to her and get the ball to Sydney Hockett who launched a perfectly placed high arc kick in the back of the net, uncontestable, a little more than half way through the second frame.
“We started playing as a unit (in the second half),” Irvin said. “We finally played as a team, finally figured it out. We found out where we were going to be and actually moved the ball up the field to finish. Playing as a unit, that’s something we’ve been missing at times this year.”
The Badgers caught fire to finish. Irvin took a Bri Carel pass on a free kick and cranked it into the net to even up the score. Minutes later, she struck again on a breakaway to make it 4-3. As time wound down, Moody’s insurance goal sealed Tandem’s fate.
“It feels amazing for us to come back against a school that has so many great players like they do,” Irvin said.
The first half was almost all STAB. The combination of Haley Kent, Kylie Hagemier and Taylor Anne-Barry was too much. Hagemeir put the Saints up 1-0 early in the first and after Tandem made it 1-1, Kent put a perfect cross on Hagemeir’s foot to reclaim the lead. To finish the half, Barry worked her way through the Badgers defense on her shifty footwork for an unassisted goal.
“We gave them trouble at the beginning,” O’Donnell said. “But we’re young and I hate to say this when we’re this deep into the season, but I think we’re falling back on our speed a little too much so that we’re getting disconnected at times. We have to work on that. They made some adjustments, putting (Peyton Oliver-Smith) back on defense for them really made a big difference.”
Tandem (5-2-1) travels to Highland on Friday at 5 p.m.
STAB (4-4-1) heads to Trinity Episcopal on Tuesday at 4 p.m.
