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 Plymouth High School students Andria Shook and Lauren Tanner show their Irish pride with green colored wigs, T-shirts and accessories on St. Patrick’s Day Wednesday. |
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Rockies break through |
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Tuesday, 13 October 2009 |
 Plymouth’s Kaycee Lynch, back, moves in to pry the ball loose from Argos’ Jami Patterson (1) Monday during first-round Argos Sectional play at Eugene Snyder Field. Pilot photo/Alan Hall
By James Costello Sports Editor
ARGOS — You can’t win them all.
Plymouth was 0-6 against the Lady Dragons over the past four years heading into Monday’s Argos Girls Soccer Sectional opener at Eugene Snyder Field. The Lady Pilgrims finally broke through on a Trisha Neidlinger goal in the 78th minute, beating Argos 1-0 in a nip-tuck battle for the right to advance to Thursday’s semifinal with Bremen and a chance to proceed to the finals Saturday.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the girls tonight,” said Plymouth head coach Joe Morris. “We finally got a monkey off our back. This senior class had not beaten Argos the entire time they were here so hopefully this will motivate them and get us ready for CGA.”
Argos had a slight edge over Plymouth both in shots on goal and corner kicks with six shots compared to five by Plymouth and two corners to one by the guests. The Dragons had numerous chances but struggled to finish at the game, including five wildly errant shots just six minutes into the contest and a one-on-one situation between Argos forward Jami Patterson and Plymouth senior keeper Nikki Butcher – who finished with six saves in the shutout — from 15 yards out that Butcher defused by sliding out to clear the ball out of bounds in the 71st minute.
“I thought we outpossessed them, we outpassed them. The only thing we didn’t do was when we had the scrambles in front of the goal, we missed them,” said Argos head coach John Alcorn. “I don’t think I want to watch the tape. Drive me crazy, but I would guess that we outpossessed them. The bottom line in soccer, since scoring is so rare you can outpossess a team, you can be better than another team, and you can lose to them. It’s not fun. The kids didn’t deserve to lose tonight with how they played but someone’s got to win, and give credit to Plymouth because they stayed with it.”
The game-winner came with just 2:52 remaining in regulation as sophomore La-Ville transfer Stephanie Heston won a 50-50 ball following a battle for a header at midfield, dribbling down the left side of the field and sliding a soft-touch pass around an Argos defender to Neidlinger, who dribbled it in from close range for the score.
“Both teams really had their chances,” said Morris. “It was nice to see Trisha finish that last one, and it was a pretty finish. She did a nice job of playing it with the outside of her right foot into the right corner. It was a pretty ball.”
Both teams struggled to get started in the cold, wet conditions Monday as they traded two shots to two shots in the first half with neither gaining a clear advantage in the possession game. It wasn’t until a run down the sideline by Argos senior mid Kassi Hensley directly following the second-half kickoff that the action began to pick up.
“I think it maybe made both teams realize that at any point in time a goal is going to change this game,” said Morris.
“That kickoff play particularly was very, very pretty. You get Kassi Hensley down in the corner looking to cross it. I thought Maggie Tanner did a good job of getting to her and I think Brandi Witmer also did a good job of closing that off, too. That was probably the first, best well-controlled run that they had the entire game and it started the second half and probably shocked us a little bit.”
Argos closes out its season at a respectable 12-5 and loses a strong cast of nine seniors, including Hensley, Kyla VanDerWeele, Staci O’Dell, Hannah Alcorn, Jena VanDerWeele, Jami Hooker, Roseanne Eiler and Caryn Melloy.
“They’ll probably always be mad about this, but they’ve had a good season and a good year, and that’s just the way it is,” Alcorn said. “Some days the ball bounces your way, and some days it doesn’t. The main thing is we can be proud of their effort because they played a very strong game, and they can go out and say we deserved to win and we just didn’t get the result we wanted. It’s been a good group. The younger kids have a lot of things to look up to and a lot of things to do.”
Plymouth, meanwhile moves on to face Bremen in a semifinal Thursday at 5 p.m.
Culver Community will play defending sectional champion Culver Girls Academy today at 5 p.m., while LaVille will play a nightcap with Rochester at 7 p.m. to determine the bottom semifinal bracket.
• PLYMOUTH 1, ARGOS 0
At Argos Girls Soccer Sectional
Quarterfinal
Second half
P — Trisha Neidlinger (Stephanie Heston), 78th minute
Shots on goal: Plymouth 5, Argos 6
Saves: Plymouth 6 (Nikki Butcher), Argos 4 (Karlee VanDerWeele)
Corner kicks: Argos 2, Plymouth 1
Fouls: Plymouth 15, Argos 8
Records: Plymouth 11-4-1, Argos 12-5 (final)
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 14 October 2009 )
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