Lady Vikings soccer beats Willis 3-0
The score may not have reflected it, but the Bryan Lady Vikings were pushed Friday evening in the quarterfinals of the Brazos Valley Cup at Merrill Green Stadium.
Bryan beat Willis 3-0 despite possession being fairly even throughout.
"Up to this point this is the toughest game we've played," Bryan coach Amy Pettibone said. "It was a very playoffesque kind of atmosphere, just everybody playing hard. It came down to who wanted it the most and who capitalized on their opportunities."
With the victory, Bryan (9-0) advances to Saturday's 9 a.m. semifinal against Midland, a 1-0 winner over Tomball. The final is at 5 p.m. at Texas A&M's Ellis Field.
The Lady Vikings didn't need an opportunity to score their first goal.
With 8 minutes, 54 seconds left in the first half, and Bryan having had the only real scoring chance until that point, Brittany Little sent a high ball off the top of her right foot into the penalty box from 45 yards out looking for a teammate. The ball landed just inside the box and bounced over the head of Willis keeper Gloria Deveraux and settled in the back of the net.
Bryan's second and third goals, both of which came in the second half against the wind, were more conventional.
Kacy Shea sent a corner kick to the far side that found Little, who headed it back across the box to where Celeste Fields headed it in for her second goal of the young season.
Then with 5:22 remaining, Little showed great placement with a free kick, ignoring the wall and tucking a 25-yard shot just inside the left post for her team-leading 11th goal.
"The first, the wind got it and carried it so we were lucky to get on the board that way," Pettibone said. "Then the finishes we've had on the corner kicks, we are pretty dangerous on the corners."
The key play of the match, though, was made at the other end of the pitch at the start of the second half, when Whitney Sinclair got behind Jaime Thompson, who in the first 40 minutes cleared away everything the Wildkats (7-2-3) sent close to the Lady Viking penalty box.
Sinclair's left-footed shot was blocked by a charging Ana Meyer. Sinclair then retrieved the rebound and from a severe angle missed squaring the game at 1-1 by sending a shot just over the far elbow of the goal frame.
"Willis put a faster girl up top [in the second half] that tested our defense, but I like who we have back there and I'm pretty confident," Pettibone said. "Ana is pretty strong in the pipes and Jaime just cleans up everything. I know on the rare occasion Jaime does get beat, Ana's got it cleaned up."
Ana had to clean up one more of Sinclair's attempts to record Bryan's seventh clean sheet, reaching high to deflect a shot from 15 yards ticketed for just inside the near post.
Bryan had a few other chances in the second half. Tori Brown's cross played havoc in the box until Emma Phillips calmly cleared it from danger, and Lupe Paz did the same with another ball that appeared dangerous for a moment.
Jazmin Perez, who had an all-around good field game, missed high from distance and Jenny Corbett shot hard at Meyer to account for Willis' other solid opportunities, all of which came after the break.