Published: September 23, 2008 06:13 pm            

Eagles bounce back with victory against Orioles

After a frustrating 1-1 tie with Cathedral Saturday night, Sept. 20, the Zionsville girls soccer team wanted to come out with a better effort against conference rival Avon Monday evening, Sept. 22.

The Eagles were able to do just that, winning a 3-1 decision at Eagles Field.

“I thought the first half was the best we have played the last couple of games,” Zionsville Head Coach Ramon Aguillon said. “We still struggle a little bit finishing games. We talked at halftime that we wanted to put them away, and we let them hang around a little bit. Overall it was a solid effort but we have to put together 80 solid minutes.”

Sophomore Lindsey Hansen added two goals in the first half to her total to stake the Eagles to a 2-0 lead at halftime.

The Eagles dominated game flow, continuously pressuring the Orioles defense to try and add another goal.

Aguillon said the team talked about being up 2-0 was a precarious position.

“We talked about it to the girls, 2-0 being the most dangerous score because you think you have the game wrapped up, but then they score one and they are right back into the game,” Aguillon said.

That scenario, which Aguillon feared, came to life right before his eyes.

Just 13 minutes into the second half the Orioles struck for a goal.

Zionsville had continued to press forward in an effort to get the all important third goal, but an Avon counterattack got through the Eagles defense and Jessica Warren made the score 2-1.

The goal seemed to wake up the Eagles as they came back even stronger to try and bring the lead back to two.

Hadley Stuart delivered with 9:33 remaining on a shot from the right side.

“That goal was huge,” Aguillon said. “That gave us a whole lot of room the last 10 minutes to play more comfortably.”

The Eagles have had numerous ties this soccer season, but seem to respond well after every single one of them.

After tying 1-1 Saturday to the Irish in a game where Mina Mansoori scored for the Eagles, they wanted to come out and prove their high ranking.

“We stress that we have to get better each game,” Aguillon said. “We have four games left now and we want to finish strong. We want to win every one of them. We are still in the hunt from the conference title and the girls are going to be ready.”

Westfield

Sometimes in sports things are more important than the outcome of the game.

Such was the case in Zionsville Wednesday night, Sept. 17. The Eagles defeated Westfield 3-1, but all thoughts in the stadium were with senior captain Amy Souers, who was taken off the field on a stretcher after colliding with a Westfield defender and injuring her back.

“I think she is going to be fine,” Aguillon said. “It was more of a precautionary measure. She had feeling in all of her extremities, and we just had her go to make sure everything was OK.”

The Eagles were up 2-0, at the point of Souers’ injury thanks to two goals from Kasey McKenney.

She got the Eagles off to a good start with an early goal. The Eagles had a lot of pressure on the Shamrocks goal in the first half, but only had the one goal to show for it.

The Eagles had a week off between the Westfield game and their previous game against Hamilton Southeastern. There was a little worry about not getting off to a good start.

“One of the things we talked about in practice this week was that we have to pick the intensity level up,” Aguillon said. “We have four ties this season, and we really should have won three of them. We wanted to make sure we finished games, and I thought we did a good job of that. The week was good to get some rest.”

The Eagles came out just as strong in the second half and were able to capitalize quickly on one of their chances.

A Westfield foul gave Zionsville a free kick about 30 yards away. Souers took it and sent it toward the 6-yard box. McKenney was able to get her head on the ball and flick it into the goal.

“She did an excellent job today,” Aguillon said. “I think she stepped up her game and we need her. When we get to the sectional and have to play Carmel and Noblesville we need her to play that way.”

The Eagles continued forward but couldn’t crack through the defense. Souers injury occurred with 15:55 remaining and kept the players on the field for nearly 45 minutes before play resumed.

When it finally did, the momentum was gone and it was Westfield’s turn to attack the goal. They were able to put a lot of pressure on the Eagles’ defense.

They were able to squeak a goal past goalkeeper Kristine Haseley with 7:34 remaining to make the score 2-1 in favor of the Eagles. Zionsville came right back, when a McKenney free kick was bobbled by the Westfield goalkeeper with 5:20 remaining and the ball found its way to the feet of Alyssa Allsop, who finished it to make the score 3-1.

“That was huge,” Aguillon said. “If we don’t score there they come back at us with a lot of pressure. So it was a huge, huge goal for us.”

Overall, Aguillon was pleased with his teams effort. But, he knew that they have a long way to go in order to get to their first overall goal of winning the conference.

The Shamrocks were the No. 1 team in the conference, so that was step one for the Eagles. Now, Noblesville stands in their way.

“Conference is still reachable,” Aguillon said. “This was a huge win. Right now Noblesville has the inside track. We need a result where Noblesville loses a game. But right now we want to finish strong. We have six games remaining, three at home, so we want to finish out well.”

        

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