(PHOTOS BY JACOB KESSLER / THE VILLAGE REPORTER)
SECTIONAL FINALS … Evergreen’s Kara Huntzinger (#18) beats a Liberty Center player to the ball during Evergreen’s sectional final win. VIEW 114 PHOTOS OF THIS CONTEST FOR FREE AT WWW.THEVILLAGEREPORTER.COM
By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
“And it came to pass” is a common phrase in the Old Testament. Evergreen heeded those words to almost Biblical proportions as the Vikings dropped perfect feeds to score four times in an eight minute span in the first half, and went on to eliminate Liberty Center in a Division 6 Sectional Final at Pifer Field, 4-0.
“Basically every day in practice we say, ‘pick a corner’ (to shoot at).and they still can’t do it,” Viking coach Jacob Ott joked after. “But we just needed that one little spark to get us going. Once we got that first one we became almost unstoppable today.” “We got that first one and got the train going.”
For the first 23 minutes of the game, no one really got anything moving offensively. The VIkes Sophia Goodson had the best chance to score but her drive from about 20 yards out went hooking right of the net with 25 left.
The Tigers had rare opportunity to get into the Vikings end as goalie Ellie Nash had nary a shot come her direction. With 16:38 left in the first, Evergreen struck to begin a whirlwind that wreaked havoc on the Tigers the next few minutes.
Alivia Mitchey dug out a pass on the left side of the field, fed Kyla Risner near the middle, who then dropped a pass to Addy Gleckler who got an easy one into a nearly open net for a 1-0 lead.
Gleckler had another high quality chance shortly after on a feed from fellow freshman Lyla Radel but goalie Maddie Sattler made a leaping save that rapped off the cross bar.
That sequence led to a Viking corner that Radel rifled toward Kara Huntzinger on the backside and the Viking senior had it careen off her chest into the net for a 2-0 score with 13:38 to go.
Evergreen was only half finished with their assault, and four minutes later Gleckler lofted a feed over the top that Radel smacked past the goalie coming out of the net to make it 3-0.
It took just 49 seconds for Evergreen to cap their barrage. Defender Lydia Gleckler launched a pass over the the Tigers middle that Addy Gleckler split two defenders in a race up field, and punched a shot into the top half of the net for the final score of the contest as the Vikings subbed as if they were making hockey line changes in the second half.
“We mixed it up a little bit, kept the defense solid,” Ott said. “We got a lot of kids some minutes and we wanted to avoid injuries and stay healthy for next week.”
Liberty’s best chance to get on the board came 12 minutes into the second when Madeline Bailey shot a corner that Teagan Oberhauser shot off the post.
Lydia Gleckler had a chance to extend the Evergreen margin a couple minutes later on a free kick that hit the cross bar and Sattler harnessed just before the ball crossed the line.
Evergreen took nine shots in the game as Sattler made four saves. Nash also had four saves, all in the second half.
Evergreen advances for the second straight year and fifth time in their short soccer history. “It’s important to us to keep advancing and having a chance to defend our turf,” Ott expressed.
“Having success at the end of the year is always important to a team, especially a young team.” The Vikes now play in a District semifinal Monday at Evergreen against higher seeded Archbold.
NWOAL FOE … Sydney Bull of Evergreen kicks the ball in the first half of their sectional final against NWOAL rival Liberty Center.