CLARE – There was a bitter taste in the mouth of Shelby girls soccer Head Coach Pete Peterson after the regional semifinals Tuesday, June 3, as he watched his team fall 1-0 to Midland Calvary Baptist (MCB) in dramatic fashion.
“It breaks my heart because we were the better team,” Peterson said. “We outshot and outplayed these guys. (MCB) had their breaks and opportunities, but we should’ve won this game.”
In a game that went scoreless through 80 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of overtime, resulting in a shootout – the drama revolved around a controversial goal that wasn’t added to the scoreboard.
Shelby had the edge on the Kings for the majority of the first half. Several scoring opportunities were spoiled by unlucky hits and unfortunate bounces. Freshman Annabelle Stark had the best look in the first 40 minutes, fighting through MCB’s defense, before turning and rifling a shot that went fewer than six inches over the crossbar.
Then, just moments into the second half, Stark redeemed her narrow miss.
Shelby senior Alyse Erickson placed a lofted corner kick into a sea of bodies, 15 feet away from the net. Sophomore Kylee Hanson tracked it, making a play on it mid-air which carried it directly to the crossbar.
Standing in front of the net were two MCB defenders, the keeper and Stark. The ball bounced off the crossbar, then the keeper’s hands and landed on the ground where it appeared to be bodied in by Stark. MCB’s keeper collected the ball just over the goal line and dove forward with it in her possession.
Shelby stood around, waiting for a whistle to stop play. Instead, a fog of disbelief hovered around the play as the officials called the play dead, leaving the teams knotted in a scoreless stalemate.
“The ball bounced around and the ref was in the wrong position,” Peterson said. “We’ve got to have (officials) who can see what’s going on and call what they see. I’m not going to get fined if I say it was a crap call, but at this level you have to have people that can make the right call. The better team…the team that deserved to win didn’t.
“If we could go back and have virtual replay on that one goal that we scored but (the officials) didn’t count, then we would’ve won in regulation. We don’t do VAR (Video Assistant Referee) in high school so we have to settle with losing in a penalty kick shootout.”
Neither team could find a way to score in regulation, which led to a mandatory 20 minutes of overtime soccer. Even with that extra time, the score remained at 0-0, leading to a penalty kick shootout, with each coach selecting five athletes to go mono e mono with the opposing keeper.
Shelby had everything in its favor to start that sequence, as Brylee Friedman easily knocked away the Kings’ first attempt. Michelle Peterson, Erickson and Kylie Brown each put away consecutive attempts, while MCB matched with two of their own. The Kings were able to even it when Hanson sent her attempt over the crossbar, allowing MCB to tie it with their third make.
With one attempt remaining for either team, MCB stepped up and put away their fifth and final penalty kick. Friedman transitioned from keeper to striker, but couldn’t get enough loft on the ball, allowing the Kings’ keeper to dive on it and secure a 1-0 victory.
“The people I put up to take those penalty kicks…we won two weeks ago with that same lineup,” Peterson said. “We won a tournament up in Buckley where we had two shootouts and we won them both running that same (lineup). The girls I had up there are the ones I trust to make them, but sometimes nerves get (to) you.”
Shelby finished their year at 6-14-2 overall and graduated seniors Erickson, Brianna Cook, Zilah Brito, Micaela Diaz and Audrey Horton.
“We have pieces and parts from JV that can replace (these seniors),” Peterson said. “That’s what we’ve been trying to do is build the JV up big enough that we can pull players up.”
