EDWARDSVILLE – Marquette Catholic's girls soccer team knows what to expect when it comes to penalty-kick shootouts in tournament matches.
After all, the Explorers won three straight matches – both their sectional matches and the super-sectional – in shootouts en route to their third-place finish in last year's IHSA Class 1A state tournament.
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So when Marquette went to a shootout against Waterloo in their seventh-place playoff match Saturday afternoon in the Metro Girls Cup Adidas Bracket at Edwardsville's Tiger Stadium, it was old hat for them. Getting to the shootout was the hard part.
Marquette can thank Lauren Walsh for helping them get to the shootout; her 79th-minute goal forged a 1-1 tie with the Bulldogs, and after 10 minutes of extra time couldn't determine the outcome, Clair Dalton stepped up in the final round of the shootout and scored past Bulldog goaltender Bailey Bosler to give the Explorers a 2-1 win, Marquette winning the shootout 3-2, to take their mark to 1-2-0 on the year; the Bulldogs fell to 0-3-0.
“It's good to get a win under your belt,” said Explorer coach Steve Mitchell. “We're used to the PK thing, of course; we outplayed them totally in the first half. We were controlling the game tempo, we had chance after chance and couldn't put it in the net. The second half, we just went flat again.
“It's still a (physical) shape thing – we've got to get some more energy and get into better shape. That's why we play this early in the season against bigger teams because, of course, you're going to get pushed. I'm proud of the kids for coming back and winning – we had to take it all the way to the 79th minute – but they're showing a lot of heart for playing with some big teams; I thought we were the better team – we just ended up getting down a goal, but we ended up coming back and winning. That's a big plus.”
Getting the win was important for Marquette, Mitchell felt. “We go down 0-3 to start the season, they get their heads hanging,” Mitchell said. “But they know what they've got to do; we talked about it.”
Waterloo took the lead just past the hour when a shot beat Explorer goaltender Lauren Fischer, but Marquette kept coming and managed to get to a goal-mouth scramble where the Explorers tried to tie the match; Walsh finally got the ball past Bosler to force extra time. Neither team could score in the extra 10 minutes of play, sending the match into the shootout.
Elisa Senno and Annabelle Copeland opened the shootout with goals while Fischer turned back shots from Sydney Luederman and Sydney Buckhorn; Mollie Zeisset and Walsh missed both their attempts in the third round, while Emma Novack scored in the fourth round while Amanda Murray missed. Ali Scace then beat Fischer on her fifth-round attempt, leaving the match at Dalton's feet, and she beat Bosler to give the Explorers the win.
Next up for the Explorers is their home opener against Columbia at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Gordon Moore Park, then a 5 p.m. Thursday match against Breese Mater Dei at Gordon Moore.
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