Veteran Patriots keep The Ball -- for the 11th time
Sep. 13—High school girls soccer matches aren't usually decided during the pregame coin toss, but Wednesday night's may have been.
Host Terre Haute North sent six captains — most of its senior class — to meet the referees and the Terre Haute South captains, and the older Patriots withstood an early South onslaught to post a 3-1 victory and keep the Ball trophy for the 11th straight year.
There's a small asterisk involved with that statistic, since the two teams tied last season and North kept the trophy as a result. South then beat the Patriots in the sectional and entered Wednesday's game with a much better record.
"We were coming in as underdogs," North's Alyse Thompson said after the game. "I'm a senior and my sisters [former Patriot stars Keely and Sasha] won all their four years against South ... this meant a lot to me, to my family and to the team."
The Braves made the Patriots look like underdogs most of the first half and had a big advantage in shot attempts, but without scoring.
"[The Braves] play a frantic style and they were able to dictate the style of play," North coach Kyle Baker said.
Then, in the 34th minute, North's Maya McNichols had the ball in the middle of the field and passed it to Cali Wuestefeld on the right flank. Wuestefeld blasted a shot off the South keeper, and Thompson was there to convert the rebound for a 1-0 lead — which seemed to inspire the Patriots to play well the rest of the way.
"[The Braves] are really good, and we did a poor job in the first half keeping the ball," said Patriot coach Kyle Baker, unbeaten in regular-season matches against the Braves. After North took the lead, Baker added, "We found the game again."
Thompson wasn't finished either. Just before the midpoint of the second half she crossed the ball in front of the net for sophomore Addie Brashier to convert, and with a little more than 10 minutes to play Thompson assisted another sophomore, Miley Wuestefeld, for the goal that made the score 3-0.
"When we had a chance to get forward, we got girls in the box [in front of the net]," Baker said. "We haven't been doing that [enough] this year.
"I thought Alyse was phenomenal tonight," the coach added. "She was everywhere."
South didn't quit, and got its goal with not quite six minutes remaining when Mary Kirkpatrick assisted Breena Ireland, but despite maintaining an advantage in shot attempts the Braves got nothing else.
"We finished and they didn't," Baker summarized. "I give the South team a lot of credit. They will not be outworked."
"We had a few opportunities," said coach Courtney Hubbard of the Braves. "They converted their opportunities and we didn't . . . North's senior group is just good, and that teamwork shows."
"We're older," Thompson said, "and at this point it means more to us. All we wanted today was to win."
A win Wednesday would have meant a second-place finish for South in the Conference Indiana standings. Now that spot belongs to the Patriots, if they can handle Columbus North on Saturday.
"As our coach always says, our best is still ahead of us," Thompson concluded.
