by Jamie Harris
The Berkeley Springs High School Lady Indians Soccer Team hosted their arch rival Frankfort Falcons in the opening round of the Class AA Sectional playoffs last Monday, October 21.
In the regular season Berkeley Springs and Frankfort both split their contests. This time around all the marbles were on the line with a win sending either team to the next round of the playoffs and a loss ended the season for the losing team.
Caitlin Childers controls the ball for the Lady Indians in last week’s games against Frankfort.
The Lady Indians struck first as junior Mikaila Ek scored at the 33:27 mark in the first half to give Berkeley Springs a 1-0 lead. At the 22:09 mark the Lady Indians pushed their lead to 2-0 as sophomore Britney Huntley scored off an assist from junior Caitlin Childers.
With 17:42 left in the first half Frankfort cut into the Lady Indians lead with a goal to make the score 2-1. The score stayed that way up to the end of the first half.
In the second half, the Falcons kept knocking on the door, but the Lady Indians goal keeper Whitney Hiles kept slamming it shut with several strong defensive stops. As the game clock was ticking away Frankfort managed to tie the game at 2-2 with 4:50 left in regulation. The score stayed that way as the second half ended.
With this being a playoff game 10 minutes was added to the clock and the overtime period began. Once again Hiles kept Frankfort out of the goal, but the Lady Indians could not find an opening path to the Falcons goal either. After 10 minutes of intense playing the score clocked hit 0:00.
The officials then put 10 more minutes on the clock and the second overtime was about to begin. This time it would be a sudden death criteria which meant the first team to score would win. At 1:18 into the overtime the Falcons got a corner kick and punched the ball past the defensive efforts of Hiles. With that goal the Falcons ended the Lady Indians soccer season by a 3-2 score.
Hiles was fantastic in goal for the Lady Indians. The feisty sophomore had 23 saves out of 26 attempts.
“The Lady Indians gave it all they had against a tough rival. They should hold their heads high as we ended our season with a better record than we had the past four years. Not many can say they closed out a season with that dramatic of an ending. To our seniors Alex Mellott, Abbie Stotler, Kendal Williams and Hynnja Dietrich best of luck. For everyone else summer practice begins on June 8. Remember play hard, play fair and the goal missed is not the one taken. Thank you ladies and to all of our supporters,” stated Lady Indians head soccer coach Steve Havermale.
