KFDM COOP Posted February 17, 2007 Report Posted February 17, 2007 Lady Dogs capture shootoutBy Tom Halliburton The Port Arthur News PORT NECHES -- If Nederland's girls ever have captured a victory in a shootout before Friday night, it's an accomplishment that escaped Julie Johnson's memory. That's the extra moments needed for the Lady Bulldogs to seize the District 20-4A girls soccer lead but they seemed worth the wait for Johnson. While the shootout counted as a tie in the 20-4A boys standings, it counted as a very important win or loss in the girls standings. The Nederlanders found the necessary ammunition from Megan Melancon, Lauren Matt and Logan Matt to win the shootout 3-0 and capture the win over Port Neches-Groves, 2-1 at frigid Indian Stadium. Nederland improved to 11-1 and 8-0 with its goalkeeper Heather Hussey producing three or four extremely important saves. PN-G moved to 10-2 and 7-1 and received an equally impressive goalkeeping display from Marquis Horn. "That's the first shootout we've ever won that I can ever remember," Johnson said. "If we have won before now, it was a long time ago. It was back in the 90s sometime. "I don't know that we played badly but I thought we would score more than one goal. I felt we had some really good moments of ball control. We had shots that hit the crossbar." Shoved back by the extra time to finish the boys shootout -- won by PN-G -- the girls game did not start before 8:15. It continued until after 10:30 with the 80 minutes of regulation ending at 1-1. The girls played two 10-minute overtime periods before Nederland started first in the 35-yard shootout. Taylor Havard of Nederland and Michelle Morgan of PN-G missed on the shootout's first round. Nederland's lone scorer in regulation play, Melancon booted home the first Lady Bulldogs goal in the shootout. After Hussey kept PN-G's Emily Pacetti from scoring, Lauren Matt made it 2-0. After Hussey rejected Brittany Ansel's bid, Logan Matt made it 3-0, putting the shootout out of reach. Melancon scored the game's first goal about 10 minutes into the second half following a scoreless first half. Pacetti assisted Marissa Elam, who tied the game at 1-1 on a goal with eight minutes left in regulation. "We kept getting behind their defense," a disappointed PN-G coach Aimee Bates lamented afterwards. "I feel like we had about three chances in situations where we had the ball at our feet. That was the time to finish it and our shots went right to the keeper. One time they had a great chance and it hit the crossbar. "I thought the first half was pretty much 50-50. I thought they (Nederland) dominated about the first 15 minutes of the second half and we dominated the rest of the second half. It was pretty much 50-50 in both overtimes." The 2006 District 20-4A Most Valuable Player, senior Brittney Fruge attended a volleyball competition in Las Vegas on Friday and did not participate. Senior Marquis Horn delivered an outstanding performance as goalkeeper. Bates indicated that Horn divided chores during the shootout with sophomore Breane Martin. Nederland will play a non-district game on 5:30 Tuesday at Klein Forest while PN-G will travel to Silsbee on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
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