After Tandem’s VISAA Division 2 title game against Eastern Mennonite, the Badgers’ Leci Irvin was limping — make that hobbling — around on a possibly hyper-extended right knee.
During the game? You could’ve never told there was a thing wrong with the senior midfielder as she saved her best high school performance for her final game. Irvin put together a sublime four-goal explosion that handed Tandem a 4-0 win and the school’s third-straight girls soccer championship.
“It was swelling a lot but I knew I was going to play no matter what,” Irvin said. “There was nothing that was going to stop me from playing in this game.”
Irvin was named the player of the year for VISAA’s Division 2 after the game, a deserved honor after a truly remarkable performance that capped an impressive season. Irvin scored a pair of goals before the break and then put Eastern Mennonite away with two more in the second including a perfectly placed header on an entry pass. That header was the fourth of the night and left little doubt that Tandem was on its way to yet another title.
“She gave it her all today all over the field,” said Tandem coach Brian Williams. “I needed her to be a little more defensive at times and she came back and stepped into the defense. That’s just pure desire and it’s a beautiful thing to watch.”
The Badgers’ back-line, including first-year goalie Abby Tinsley, wrapped up a near-flawless tournament run for the second-seeded Badgers. Tandem produced a clean sheet for the tournament, allowing no goals in the three-game stretch as the Badgers outscored their three opponents (Norfolk Christian, North Cross and Eastern Mennonite) 13-0.
“We face a lot of these teams that like to kick and run and score on counter attacks,” Williams said. “We’ve worked really hard on defending that. Early on in the season there was confusion at time so we cleaned that up a little bit. Kate Moody, Amanda Owensby, Gillian Gardiner and Hannah Kirk-Nass — they are so solid back there, they know exactly what to do.”
Irvin seemed to run free offensively as Eastern Mennonite concentrated on containing Bri Carel, who also earned All-VISAA Division 2 honors. While Carel, who has poured in more than 30 goals on the year, didn’t break through, she kept the pressure on in the offensive zone and gave Irvin a chance to get it done.
Payton Oliver-Smith, who re-entered the lineup in late April, gave the Badgers too much speed up top for the Flames to handle and Irvin made them pay. It was a storybook ending to a fantastic prep career for Irvin, who’ll head to William and Mary next fall as a walk-on with the Tribe soccer team.
“I just saw moments where I had the slightest time to sneak my way through,” Irvin said. “I like taking on players and they gave me the opportunity and I took it.”
