Women's Soccer | 12/13/2023 8:03:00 AM
The Lady Arrows Soccer team won a nailbiter at Arrow Field on Tuesday night, defeating the Madison Central Lady Jaguars in Penalty Kicks following a scoreless draw of 2 40 minute halves and 2 10 minute extra time periods. The win moves the Lady Arrows to 7-0-2 on the season and 2-0 in Region 2-7A.
The game was back and forth the entire time during regulation and overtime. Both teams had chances to score, both goalkeepers made clutch stops, and both teams played their hearts out for 100 minutes of soccer. The Lady Arrows had chances in the attacking half, but were just unable to capitalize on the opportunities they created.
After 2 overtime periods, the game was decided by penalty kicks. The history of the matchup between Madison Central and Clinton made this result unsurprising. In the past 11 matchups between the two teams, penalty kicks have decided 6 of those matches.
The Lady Jaguars started penalty kicks with a make before Senior
Mckenzie Price got the Lady Arrows off to a solid start, driving the ball into the back of the net to tie the score at 1-1.
Senior goalkeeper
Sarah Polk came up big on the next shot by the Lady Jaguars as she dove to her right and stopped the ball in its tracks to give the Lady Arrows the early advantage. Junior
Kate Crisler followed that save with a solid shot to make the score 2-1 in favor of the Lady Arrows.
In the third round of penalties, the Lady Jaguars sent their shot sailing over the crossbar before Senior
Cooper Holmes converted her attempt to make the score 3-1.
The fourth round of penalties ended up being the deciding round after the Jaguars made the score 3-2 by making their shot. Junior
Mandy Leach stepped up to the spot and drilled the back of the net to end the match and make the penalty score 4-2.
Head Coach Elliot Rimmer was proud of his team's effort, saying, "Always good to get a district win, some are just more stressful than others. Madison has a great group of girls and they are very well coached, so we knew coming in that we would have to be up for it and the girls came out and played good soccer for 100 minutes. Anytime you go to kicks from the spot to decide a game it essentially turns into a mental battle, and that's something that we practice and prepare for daily so we knew if it got to that point that we could handle the pressure. Sarah made a good save and then forced a miss, and Mandy was calm and collected and sealed the deal for us on the last kick."
The Lady Arrows return to action on Friday night as they travel to Tupelo to take on the Golden Wave in a pivotal Region 2-7A matchup.
