Saints Steam into the Title Match with 10 Minutes "Watch This"

 

Game 18: State Semi Finals (16-0-2)
27 May vs. Maize South at Stryker Park, Wichita, KS (4-0)






The girls, coming off an inspirational senior dinner, put on one heck of an opening 10 minutes against a Maize South team who actually played a competitive match from then on.

The girls opened in a 4-3-3, for the first time in awhile, and really used that opening width to score some goals, create some corners (6 in the first half), and rotate the ball. The opening 10 gave us a dose of both Hansens and one Watts (her first goal of the match tied the school record that had lasted for 27 years.).

Payne did make a big-time save with 6 minutes and change to go in the first half (check it out!) to keep it 3-0 at the half.

The bench was strong once again, as most of the starters should be in pretty good shape for the finals as no one really played even close to 80 minutes.

We won the second half, 1-0, on an early Sydney Watts PK that not only put the match in the freezer, but also, became her 35th goal of the season and leaves her alone at the top of "Goals Scored in a Season" for Saint Thomas Aquinas Girls' Soccer, all time.

Tonight the Saints racked up their 11th shutout in 18 games. Considering we can add 6 one-goal games to that total (one goal or less in 17 of 18 games, with 3 of those being overtime games), that back line of Gregovich, Kante, Scherzer and Holton (with a lot of Rylance) deserves some major respect! . . . not to mention 3 keepers who all have a goals-against of less than .55 a game with Payne an amazing .375 goals against—that's currently best all-time, edging out Amanda McMurray's 1995, .380 goals against.

Mill Valley ended up matching our 4-0 win in the nightcap against Goddard Eisenhower. Hopefully, finishing a lot earlier than they did, and resting many of our starting players a bunch of minutes will give us a bit of an edge in the finals as they looked very good all over the field, as well—and they also have some big-time girls' soccer players.

The girls will go for State Title #18, Saturday—and that would be more state titles than any other program in our school, or any other soccer program in our State.

STATS:

First Half:

Saints: Shots: 10 (8) Corners: 6 (Watts 3, O'Keefe 2, Marn)

39:06 A. Hansen (Grego heads to Watts who runs a give-and-go with Abby to create the T-ball for the knock-in)

35:34 J. Hansen (Jane goes beast-mode to win tackles and move into a shot, a lefty from 20)

31:43 Watts (Marn lifts the long, diagonal cross off the throw-in for a quick Watts settle-and-shoot from the 13)

Maize South: Shots: 6 (3) Corners: 1

Second Half:

Saints: Shots: 10 (6) Corners: 2 (Cabantac, A. Hansen)

31:33 Watts (Sydney earns her own PK making a move inside the 18)

Maize South: Shots: 2 (1) Corners: 0



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