by Kailee Dick
Smith County’s season came to an end after a thrilling 7-6 region semifinal loss against White House Heritage on Tuesday.
Both teams battled back-and-forth defensively early, and the first goal of the game came in the 26th minute. This goal was scored by senior Brooklyn Sensabaugh to give Smith County a 1-0 lead heading into the half.
The two teams picked up the momentum out of the break, as a total of five goals were scored. White House Heritage scored two goals to take a 2-1, before junior Aubrey Felice tied the game for the Lady Owls.
Before time expired, Heritage and Felice each scored again, tying the game at 3-3.
“We had a great week of preparation and these girls have shown through a lot of adversity,” said head coach Nicholus Bussell. “This is one of the smallest squads I have ever coached and they had to battle the whole year. We had to battle through some injuries tonight and played the biggest single-A soccer team, who has a great record of being in these games. Tonight we showed through our adversity, grit and determination that we wanted it really bad.”
White House Heritage scored first in the 10-minute overtime period with 6:45 left, and Felice tied the match once again for Smith County. The game went into the second overtime still tied at 4-4, but neither team scored and the match moved to penalty kicks.
The match then ended with a shootout. Both teams had the opportunity to shoot five penalty kicks to break the tie. This is where White House Heritage put the match away, as they outscored Smith 3-2 to win 7-6 and advance in the region tournament.
“I hate that it ends on PKs because it is just luck,” said Bussell. “It’s hard to prepare for that. You always want to run a play and win and just out-score somebody…I told them that at this point, it is all luck, keep your heads up high, do whatever you’ve got to do to try your best, but we’re not going to put our heads down. We have been in this situation before, and when we get into a PK shootout, it’s just tough. I told Catie Bell to make a decision and she had great instincts. She saved two of them and that one she had close on the line just slipped through just a little bit. She’s a freshman and she is going to get better, but she got some great experience tonight. The five girls that took the shots, shot well. I told them to pass it in and make the best decision with it because it is a split-second decision”
The Lady Owls end their season with a record of 12-2-2 and a district record of 5-0-1.
“I am extremely proud, words can not describe how proud I am,” Bussell said. “A lot of people counted this team down, we graduated nine seniors last year, and we lost a lot, so everyone counted us out. These girls worked all summer on wanting to step up and they have stepped up all year. They showed through a lot of perseverance that stepping up when someone goes down and battling the whole time really showed tonight…I can’t be any more proud. I love all of them and I am just so proud.”
