Mustangs win nailbiter in OT
The lady Mustangs confronted a determined, skilled, fast Williston team, a team with excellent ball handlers, quick, accurate passing, big through balls and great anticipation. Williston came ready to play and caught the Mustangs out of sync and sluggish. We struggled all day to find our flow, which came in intermittent spurts, but just enough to put a W in our win column. Williston pressured every ball from the opening minute, and the action went end to end, but Williston was dominating. At 17:21, Wiliston would notch their only goal off a quick free hit taken by their excellent ball handling center mid player, whose quick action caught us off guard, leading to a scrum in front of goal resulting in a goal. Five minutes later Millbrook would answer back with Chapman scoring off a fine penalty corner shot. The half would end 1-1. Lavitt and Fracchia played exceptionally well in the closing minutes of the half as Williston tried to notch another goal.
We were still sluggish and out of sync, not finding our passing rhythm, for at least half of the second half. We were lucky Willston didn't score; they did everything but score, pressuring, earning corners, getting off good shots. Our gritty D held fast, and Kathryn Whalen, playing left mid, played her best half of the year, as she turned it on and helped get the ball out of our defensive end. With 14 minutes on the clock, Williston earned three corners in a row and Fracchia, on fly, devastated their corner and Nelson in the net also made several key saves, to keep the game tied. We had several corners ourselves, but our shots went just wide of the net. We also started to turn the ball over with careless mistakes, so the game was getting very interesting, to say the least.
We earned a penalty corner as time expired and had a chance to win the game right there. Our first corner shot resulted in being awarded a second corner, so the suspense continued. Burdis and Chapman managed to stop the injection and shoot, a scrum ensued on the goal line. The ball hovered, dangled, kissed the goal line but never went totally over, then Williston cleared, and we were in OT.
Lucky for us, we had possession to start the OT (7v7 10 minute sudden victory). Chapman zinged the ball to scrappy Fallon, who one-timed it to Burdis who carried it down field, dodged two players, then passed to Steele-Norton who took on the tall, agile Williston goalie 1v1, and without a second's hesitation, neatly slipped the ball past her pads on the left, to win the game in OT for her team.
It's nice to know that we can beat an excellent team who played a great game, even when we're off our game. Somehow, the Mustangs found a way and although it wasn't pretty, we'll take the win any day!
Back
We were still sluggish and out of sync, not finding our passing rhythm, for at least half of the second half. We were lucky Willston didn't score; they did everything but score, pressuring, earning corners, getting off good shots. Our gritty D held fast, and Kathryn Whalen, playing left mid, played her best half of the year, as she turned it on and helped get the ball out of our defensive end. With 14 minutes on the clock, Williston earned three corners in a row and Fracchia, on fly, devastated their corner and Nelson in the net also made several key saves, to keep the game tied. We had several corners ourselves, but our shots went just wide of the net. We also started to turn the ball over with careless mistakes, so the game was getting very interesting, to say the least.
We earned a penalty corner as time expired and had a chance to win the game right there. Our first corner shot resulted in being awarded a second corner, so the suspense continued. Burdis and Chapman managed to stop the injection and shoot, a scrum ensued on the goal line. The ball hovered, dangled, kissed the goal line but never went totally over, then Williston cleared, and we were in OT.
Lucky for us, we had possession to start the OT (7v7 10 minute sudden victory). Chapman zinged the ball to scrappy Fallon, who one-timed it to Burdis who carried it down field, dodged two players, then passed to Steele-Norton who took on the tall, agile Williston goalie 1v1, and without a second's hesitation, neatly slipped the ball past her pads on the left, to win the game in OT for her team.
It's nice to know that we can beat an excellent team who played a great game, even when we're off our game. Somehow, the Mustangs found a way and although it wasn't pretty, we'll take the win any day!
