KFDM COOP Posted March 14, 2009 Report Posted March 14, 2009 Lady Bulldogs win in OT, force title game Tuesday By Tom Halliburton The Port Arthur News NEDERLAND -- Just like in any other sport, great soccer players make big plays at the biggest moments. Nederland's Megan Melancon seized Friday night's biggest moment. Fourteen seconds into the second 10-minute overtime period, the Lady Bulldogs senior midfielder weaved her way past two defenders and fired a low game-winning shot from the right angle to give Nederland a 1-0 victory and force a rematch for the 38-4A girls district championship. All these players, coaches and fans will reconvene on Tuesday in the new Reservation at 7 p.m. A third sibling in her own family to play four years in Julie Johnson's program, Melancon took the ball outside the 18-yard box and came toward Lady Indians' goalkeeper Breanne Martin on the dribble, unloading a shot toward the left side of the net. Martin lunged for it but the ball reached its appointed destination. Melancon's shot enabled Nederland to improve to 16-5-3 and 7-1, amassing seven shutouts in their eight district games. Stopper Morgan Morrison, sweeper Lauren Washburn, goalkeeper Bianca Garza and the Nederland defenders prevented PN-G (17-3-1 and 7-1) from scoring for the only time during this regular season. "She just controlled the ball, juked a couple of defenders and fired off a nice shot," Johnson said after the winning goal. "I thought our girls moved the ball around really well. It was a great effort. Our girls were very determined. We created a lot of opportunities tonight." The shots on goal looked dead even going into the second overtime, 12-12, with Nederland's defense able to negate PN-G's speed more on Bulldog Stadium's grass surface. Lady Indians' coach Aimee Bates cited that need to accent her team's speed more in the third meeting. "We need to utilize our speed a little better," Bates said. "On a scale on 1 to 10, regarding how well we executed our plan, I would say we were about a '6' and I thought for the most part that our defense worked but they got behind our defense some." A most agonizing moment for PN-G's fans and Bates occurred late in the first overtime when the officials disallowed a goal by Natalie Hager. A linesman inadvertantly signaled that PN-G's Chloe Chiasson had been ruled guilty of offsides. Then the linesman immediately permitted the action to continue. Hager scored seconds later before the officiating crew conferred before they decided to disallow the goal. "Our girls were real upset but that one call did not make or break the game," the PN-G girls coach said. "At times I would say that our offense was looking pretty good, but I wouldn't say that we were throughout the whole game." A major key to PN-G's 2-0 homefield win over Nederland had been the ability of Chelsea Horn and other Lady Indians' defenders to contain Melancon. Once again for more than 80 minutes, the PN-G defense accomplished that task to some extent. However Nederland applied some serious pressure on PN-G's net during the final 15 minutes of regulation. An excellent leaping catch by PN-G keeper Martin prevented a Nederland goal with 8:47 to play off a corner kick by Lady Bulldogs' sophomore Layken Richard. It all resumes Tuesday on the magic carpet of Indian Stadium
Recommended Posts