It was a tale of two halves for The Overlake School girls’ soccer team against Cedar Park Christian as the two teams squared off in an Emerald City League matchup at the Overlake School on Tuesday afternoon, with the Owls prevailing 4-2.
Trailing 1-0 at halftime, the Owls’ senior midfielder Emily Kelly led a second-half charge with three goals, including the eventual game-winner.
“She really (stepped up),” head coach Sally Goodspeed said of Kelly. “She was the one talking at halftime … She really got vocal and demanding of the ball in those key situations, and everybody jumped on her back.”
“SECOND-HALF TEAM”
The hard-luck Owls recorded nine shots on goal in the first half with nothing to show for their efforts, while Cedar Park senior captain Nicolette Clark fired a perfect 20-yard shot into the top left corner past goalie Zoe Pinczower, in the 14th minute, to give the Eagles the early lead.
In what has been a recurring theme for the Owls this season – they scored four unanswered goals in the second half of their 4-1 win against Vashon Island back on Sept. 11 – they came out with a renewed energy after the halftime break.
Kelly finally got Overlake on the board with a score to the right side, assisted by sophomore midfielder Quinn Phillips, tying the game.
Less than a minute later, Phillips drew a foul in the goal box, setting up a crucial penalty kick that was given to Kelly, who put it in.
After Cedar Park’s Clark countered with her second goal of the game from the left wing, Kelly once again came through with a perfect shot just under the crossbar, out of the reach of Cedar Park goalkeeper Kari Johnson.
“It felt really good,” Kelly said of her offensive spark in the second half. “In about all of our games we’ve been down 1-0 and come back to score 3-4 goals. We’re definitely a second-half team.”
Goodspeed praised her team’s effort in fighting back for an important league victory, citing Phillips’ patience in the attack and the amazing speed of freshman forward Jenay Brown as key components to the win.
Brown simply out-hustled a defender and took a ball about 20 yards for a score late in the game to seal the Owls’ win.
“We’ve had speedy players before, but she might be one of the fastest we’ve had,” Goodspeed commented. “That was just a full-on, 100 percent sprint for a breakaway. (Speed) is a nice weapon to have.”
TOP OF THE STANDINGS
Once again, the Owls are off to a great start at 4-1-0 in league play, with this latest victory over Cedar Park calming the team’s nerves considerably.
“Cedar Park was a team that I worried about, and for good reason,” Goodspeed said. “They’re strong and returned a lot of players from last year’s talented team. They had us down and then when we got up, tied it really quickly.”
Added Kelly, “Cedar Park is definitely one of the harder teams we’ll play, judging by their past games and past years, so it felt really good to win this one. We knew it was going to be hard.”
Unlike last season, where the Owls rode their “super six” seniors to victory time and time again with a brilliant supporting cast, the squad is still looking for those two or three proven goal-scorers that they can go to on offense.
Until then, Overlake will be glad to take a win, any way they can get one.
“This was big for us,” Goosdpeed said, “We always want to be at or near the top of the standings, and this game will help us accomplish that.”
The Owls (4-1-0) next play on Thursday afternoon at home against University Prep after the Reporter’s deadline. Overlake is currently second in the Emerald City League, trailing undefeated Seattle Academy (4-0-1) by just one point overall.
