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Stone wins battle of archrivals
Cougars eliminate Warriors, move on to region semis
Friday, Nov. 6, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by EMILY BARNES
La Plata's Alison Norris watches as teammate Cindie Jones stumbles as she battles with Stone's Katrina Savoy.
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Apparently, the Class 3A South region random draw in girls soccer has a flare for the dramatic.
The regional bracket featured a highly anticipated quarterfinal round matchup between a pair of archrivals that are similar in playing style, talent, wins going in and their passion to beat one another, thanks to the La Plata Warriors' random fifth seed having them play the fourth-seeded Thomas Stone Cougars after each team received a first-round bye.
In the past, their showdown has decided the county's best team. Tuesday, their clash was about postseason survival –– with bragging rights being the cherry on top.
Stone's return to the region, after spending much of this decade in the 4A East, was a happy one as it edged visiting La Plata in a 2-1 quarterfinal victory.
The latest outcome continues a trend in the tightly contested rivalry, as the last four contests have been decided by no more than one goal. The trend was jumpstarted by an intense, no-love-lost clash two years ago in the regular season that ended in a 2-all tie with the unofficial county title on the line.
The last two regular seasons have seen La Plata and Stone trade 1-0 wins.
Now Stone takes a definite leg up in the series with its most recent triumph in the rivalry, completing the sweep this year after winning the teams' regular season tilt.
"Them and North Point, but they're the biggest one," Stone junior sweeper Kaitlin Evans said of La Plata being her program's archrival. "It's just amazing that we beat them tonight. We were all just nervous and excited. We all wanted to win this really bad. We got it together once we scored."
Stone (6-5-2) had little time to bask in the glory of beating La Plata (5-7-1) as it advanced to Friday's regional semifinals at top-seeded Huntingtown. Kickoff is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
Stone put up a good fight at Huntingtown to cap the regular season Oct. 23, losing just 1-0.
"I would've rather played [La Plata] now and get them of the way," Evans said. "They're definitely a team just like us – they're strong, they're competitive and they want to win it just as bad as us. [Defeating La Plata] is just as big [as winning a regional title], but it would be so much better if we won [the region]."
Both Stone goals came within a span of four minutes late in the first half.
Junior forward Katrina Savoy opened the scoring when she took advantage of a La Plata defensive mistake by stealing a pass headed for the goalie before unloading a perfect crossing shot from the left side of the box into the right corner of the net in the 30th minute.
"I was just able to take advantage of [La Plata's] bad touch [intended for its goalie] and get it and score," Savoy said. "[The goalie] wasn't coming out, and she started backing up and second-guessing. And that's how I took advantage.
"We come into this game every year knowing La Plata's coming for us, hard, strong. This will be the hardest game they play all season, and all we want to do is play equally hard, maybe even better. We're very similar [teams]. So we came out here aspiring to beat them on our home turf."
Then in the 34th minute, Evans came up from her defensive position to take a free kick about 30 yards out from the goal. Evans' well-placed lofted shot nearly scored from inside the left sideline. All La Plata goalie Hannah Peregoy could do is extend her hands toward the crossbar with hopes of catching the ball.
Peregoy was only able to knock it down amid a scrum on the right side of the goal line in front of her, and Stone sophomore midfielder Allie Ondrejcak was in the prime spot to knock in the rebound on a defenseless goal.
That was essentially the backbreaker for Stone, holding a 2-0 lead going into halftime.
"I thought we played fairly well, but we gave up two goals that were bad goals –– that's been the story of our season, giving up easy goals," said La Plata head coach Chris Butler, whose club dropped its sixth game by a goal this year. "This is a game we felt like we were going to win, and somehow we've got to figure out a way to win close games. Yeah, it hurts. It hurts a lot, because we expected to win tonight. We had the right game plan, and for the most part we executed the game plan.
"You get down, 2-0, in the playoffs, it's hard to come back."
"They're definitely our archrival –– No. 1," Savoy said about La Plata. "It feels amazing [to beat them]. We had beaten them before, but we knew they were coming out harder than ever. Revenge is one thing we didn't have."
Senior midfielder Brianna Arnold got La Plata on the scoreboard with a few minutes left in the contest, scoring from nearly the same left spot and on the same end of the field as Stone's first goal by arching a crosser into the upper right corner of the goal.
But the offense came too little, too late for La Plata, which outshot Stone on goal, 7-4, after intermission.
"I didn't feel comfortable at all. Everyone kept rushing, and I just wanted to relax because we were up, 2-0," Evans said of her mood for much of the second half. Two years ago, Evans saw her team's 2-0 halftime lead evaporate en route to the tie outcome against La Plata. "It's frustrating knowing that they scored in the end, but that's OK. I knew we could do it."
Ironically, in the first half before Stone erupted for its back-to-back scores, La Plata was dictating the offensive flow and time of possession. The right combination of passes were there for La Plata, as Rachel Fenlon, Jessica Laidley, Alison Norris and Destinee Morris had the ball deep in the offensive zone on numerous occasions.
But there were few quality finishing shots for La Plata to keep Stone's defense off-balanced. Fenlon was responsible for La Plata's best scoring opportunity of the first half inside the final two minutes when she ripped a shot deep in the left side of the box. Stone senior goalie Melanie Glessner, however, was there to snag Fenlon's scoring attempt and keep the Cougars in front, 2-0.
Results
Stone 2,
La Plata 1
La Plata 0 1
Stone 2 0
Goals: La Plata (Arnold);
Stone (Savoy, Ondrejcak)
Saves: La Plata (Peregoy 6); Stone (Glessner 13)
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