Lady Mustangs can’t keep up with Lady Broncos

[KFDM COOP]

Lady Mustangs can’t keep up with Lady Broncos

By Corey Roepken

The Daily News

Published April 12, 2008

ROUND ROCK — It took less than six minutes for the second of two Class 4A state semifinal soccer games to change faces on Friday.

It will take much longer than that for the Friendswood Lady Mustangs to forget about it.

Friendswood scored the only first-half goal, but a flurry of second-half offense propelled McKinney Boyd to a 3-1 victory at the Round Rock ISD Athletic Complex.

Boyd (24-2-1) will play Wichita Falls Rider (30-0-1) for the state title today at 4 p.m. Friendswood (24-2-5) fell short of a championship in its third straight trip to the state tournament.

The Lady Broncos scored all of their goals in a span of 5 minutes, 26 seconds. The first came in the 53rd minute, the second in the 55th minute and the third in the 59th minute.

“None of us can really believe how quickly they came back,†junior sweeper Kristen Bowen said. “We had a six-minute breakdown. For a while, we lost ourselves, and that’s all they needed. It was such frenzy.â€

Several players said the team kept its sanity up until Boyd scored the equalizer on a penalty kick. Boyd’s Lauren Katada won a foul inside the penalty area as she stepped inside a Friendswood defender. Katherine Cox converted the penalty to give the Lady Broncos all the momentum.

Cox got the assist on the winning goal two minutes later. She served a 45-yard free kick into the 6-yard box. Friendswood goalkeeper Lauren Kahre (seven saves) came off her line to punch it away, but it got over her head. Boyd’s Kelly Monogue finished into the open net.

Four minutes after that, Cox scored again on a shot from the bottom right corner of the penalty area. Her acute-angle shot floated over Kahre and went into the net off the far post.

Boyd’s second-half dominance was similar to the success it found during the first 20 minutes of the first half. The Lady Broncos had little trouble holding the run of play during that time. As a result, it took away Friendswood’s strength — the midfield.

“It seemed like they had so many more people than we did. We couldn’t keep up,†senior midfielder Katelyn Kaspar said. “We were playing really hard, but we were all dehydrated and we were all exhausted. We just all fell apart. But there is no way they should have had three goals in six minutes.â€

Friendswood righted itself after the opening 20 minutes. Boyd appeared ready to take the lead in the 19th minute when it had a chance at a penalty kick. Kahre saved the low shot, though, to turn things around. The Lady Mustangs didn’t need the momentum for long before they took the lead.

Sophomore forward Annalisa Hall beat two defenders along the left touchline and served a cross into the penalty area. Boyd cleared the ball directly to Friendswood senior Stephanie Stack about 25 yards from the goal. Stack served a ball into the 6-yard box, and Campbell chested it past the keeper for the lead.

Kaspar almost made it a two-goal lead a moment later with a shot off the outside of her right foot. Boyd goalkeeper Jessica Gilchrist had to punch it away from the far post.

The first-half turnaround, Bowen said, was as a result of the Lady Mustangs figuring out the best method of attack.

“We knew we could beat them on the outside and on diagonal balls,†Bowen said. “As long as we were getting it to our space and to our feet, there was definitely a way to beat them on the outside.â€

Friendswood coach Laura Peter said the team had a good talk at halftime and emphasized switching fields with diagonal balls. Unfortunately, Peter said, the Lady Mustangs never got going with that strategy after halftime.

She added that some of the players began to turn on one another and that the resulting frustration after giving up the tying goal was too much to overcome.

“We should have been able to keep focus and not get down on ourselves,†Bowen said. “We could have started over at 0-0 and gone from there just like in the first half. You could tell right after they scored we had a breakdown. I wish that would not have happened.â€

[RonBurgundy68]

Shows you how amazing and crazy this game can be. All it takes is 5 minutes, and the entire complexity of a game can be changed... After something like that happens, honestly I think it's almost impossible to recover from...

[watash]

Friendswood Fan

any additional thoughts or analysis? The article makes it sound like Boyd was stronger for a larger portion of the game

[FriendswoodFan]

It was a very even game.  Both are great teams.  Boyd shot a lot from far away, so the shots on goal numbers were skewed towards them, but Friendswood led in corner kicks 4-1 and had more chances near the goal. 

It is hard to win a game like this giving up 2 PKs, and the one in the second half was a very questionable call.  But, the girls did not get deflated after that (what the lame coach said about kids arguing or turning on one another is pure nonsense), and attacked right after the kickoff and had a great scoring chance.  Boyd's second goal was a fluke because it was actually a pretty easy save for the usually rock solid keeper, but she just missed it.  The third goal was even more fluky because it was a cross attempt that was well defended, and the Boyd kid actually mis-hit the ball and it kind of went up high with a lot of spin, and the combination of the spin and the wind caused it to drop towards the goal, and the keeper either didn't see it or lost her footing and never caugth it as it dropped out of the sky into the goal. 

This is probably a good time to say -- again -- that our keeper is usually GREAT, and I am by know means blaming her.  Without her, this team would never have made it.  She made two bad plays all year, and both were in this game.  Friendswood wouldn't trade her for anyone!

Once it got to 3-1, Boyd changed formations (4-5-1) and played a smart defensive game, and kept the weary Friendswood players (it was hot, and Friendswood rarely subbed, while Boyd played about 16 different players) away from the goal.  For the second straight year, Friendswood NEVER altered its standard 4-4-2 formation; even when time was running down.  I don't get it -- with 10 minutes left in a must win game, wouldn't you run with a 3rd and then 4th forward, and take some chances in the back.

All told, I thought that the teams were pretty even.  The key differences were that Frindswood got some unlucky breaks and Boyd had better coaching (he kept his players fresh, and changed formations and tactics).  I thought the Friendswood coach showed her usual lack of class by trying to throw her players under the bus with her comments in the newspaper, but hey that's another story in and of itself. 

It was a great run for the 9 Friendswood seniors who won the region 3 years in a row.  They will be missed, but Friendswood will be back next year -- unfortunately with the same coach.