Taking it to a shootout… 100 minutes not enough to determine game between Elizabethton, Volunteer

Published 8:09 am Thursday, August 27, 2020

By Ivan Sanders

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BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR SPORTS EDITOR
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
Many might say that neither team deserved to lose in this contest as the Elizabethton Lady Cyclones and the Volunteer Lady Falcons as both teams ran their legs off for 100 minutes progressing through an 80-minute regulation and two 10 minute overtimes before going to a penalty kick shootout to see who would come away with a region win.
By the time the final shot was booted, actually twice, the Lady Cyclones walked off Citizens Bank Stadium field with a 3-2 well-deserved victory.
Both teams had opportunities to score during regulation and overtime but the work that was done in the goals by both opposing goalkeepers was exemplary and kept the score at 0-0 forcing the shootout.
In the penalty kick shootout, shots from Lady Cyclones Maddie O’Quinn, Tessa Lamb, and Siana Robey found the net to give Elizabethton the win.
The victory wasn’t secured until goalkeeper Morgan Heaton had to stop not only one but two kicks to preserve the win as on the final kick, a line violation was called on Heaton and on the second kick from the Lady Falcon kicker, Heaton wrapped her arms around the ball taking the kick solidly in the chest as the Lady Cyclones celebrated.
Cyclone head coach Bill McClay was pleased with the play of his team and especially the younger members of his team.
“Both teams played really hard,” McClay said. “We ended up with five freshmen on the field at the end. We had three injuries coming in and two more during the game. I am really happy because of the number of freshmen who got a lot of quality playing time tonight.
“It gives me confidence going forward knowing that even if they have a lack of game experience, their effort was pretty good and a couple of freshmen playing back eliminated a situation tonight.”
McClay added that he thought that playing in a game like this one will provide more good than spending a couple of hours on the practice field.
“We did a good job in the first half. I think we created a couple of things for ourselves. Our passes in the first half weren’t that good but we finally got a couple in,” he said.
“In the second half, we started to move the ball from side to side and had a couple of opportunities. We had that goal that was called back because of being offside. We had six or seven corners in the first half and a couple of scrums or mauls right there in front of the goal and all it would have taken was a toe and it could have easily have been 4-0 but it ended 0-0.”
The Lady Cyclone coach was pleased with the play of his goalkeeper, Heaton, who provided the opportunity for his team to pull out the win in the shootout.
“We got caught in a couple of things that we have to work on. The effort across the board was really good. Morgan did a good job even though she didn’t do a whole lot other than play her position,” McClay commented.
“She used her feet really well tonight.”
Not to look too far ahead, but McClay is hoping that his team will see some fast recoveries so that he can get at least part of his injury list back on the field.
“Hopefully we will have some people get healthy by next Tuesday for that conference game against Sullivan Central. We can play with them but they will have a little revenge on their mind and the game is away,” he added.

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