Eagles down Leps in shootout

By JEREMY SELLEW

jsellew@yourmvi.com

It was shootout deja vu at Belle Vernon Area’s James Weir Stadium.

For the second time in three days, the Leopards suffered another disappointing playoff exit. This time it was the girls team.

Seconds after BVA got the go-ahead goal with 55 seconds remaining, Oakland Catholic stunned the Leopards with a goal on a corner kick just 19 seconds later to force overtime, eventually coming away with a shootout win, 2-2 with a 5-3 win in penalty kicks.

The Eagles (10-4) hit on all five of their attempts in the shootout with goalkeeper Deryn Bagley coming up with a big save on the Leopards’ second shooter, Morgan Einodshofer.

“It’s so hard to lose on PKs, basically its all on luck and a good guess,” BVA head coach Tracey Lovett said. “This is the 8-9 game and you can see, we’re pretty even teams. I think we had the better of the play in the second half and both overtimes. It’s just hard to swallow.”

Making it an even harder pill to swallow was the Leopards played the game without starting goalkeeper Grace Henderson.

“Grace has been battling an ankle injury and couldn’t go,” Lovett said. “But I was really happy with the way Victoria Rodriguez played back there. She’s feeling bad right now, but I really thought she played great. She was really aggressive and she does a great job of communicating, she really talks a lot back there and instructs the defense.

“While it hurt to take her out of the field a little bit, she’s a really good stopper in the defensive midfield. I think we did a good job defensively.” 

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