Wesley kicks Bellmont to 7th in a row
DECATUR—For much of the past decade, the Saturday of the week of soccer sectional has served as a crowning achievement of the Bellmont girls soccer season and a springboard to a week of training in preparation for a tough regional opponent the following weekend.
The Woodlan Warriors did everything in their power to make “next week” become “next year” for the Bellmont Braves Saturday, but the home team won the school’s seventh consecutive sectional title in a thrilling 1-0 victory to stay alive in the 2A state soccer tournament.
“It was pretty obvious that they were not set up to score,” admitted senior Ashlyn Walker about her Norwell opponents. “They wanted a penalty shootout.”
Walker’s analysis was hard to deny with the way Woodlan played for 80 minutes. The match had a much different tone than the Thursday win over Norwell, when the Braves conceded early and chased the match for much of the game before scoring twice in the final eight minutes to snatch a victory from their archrivals.
Woodlan were never able to make that scoring threat, rarely challenging Bellmont goalkeeper Taylor Louis. In fact, after Haleigh Wesley scored the game’s only goal, it seemed as if the game was over and the trophy could have joined the Bellmont back line in defense without moving. The Warriors showed little urgency in the game’s final minutes, rendering Walker’s theory true: Woodlan knew they needed to hold Bellmont scoreless in regular time to have a shot at winning Saturday.
The Braves utitlized Wesley, an allstate defender last year as a junior, up top and attempted to use her superior ball-handling skills and ball-shielding abilities to their advantage in the absence of leading scorer Carly Gilbert, who was unavailable with a broken bone in her foot.
“Even though she didn’t play,” noted Wesley, “it’s hard not to talk about how important Carly is to our team and how big of a change we have to make to replace her.
Wesley noted that Gilbert was the first across the field after the match, despite traveling on her crutches, as the team celebrated the win with the large home crowd.
“I knew we were going to need someone up top,” Wesley said after the match. “I love being on defense, but I am always happy to help the team out.
Wesley had plenty of chances to score throughout the game and the Braves pressured the Woodlan keeper often, but many of the shots were high and off target in the new offensive formation. In the 36th minute, Wesley beat a defender and had just the goalie to beat but fired high and over the bar.
A minute later, Gwen Laurent’s inswinging corner kissed the crossbar but no one from Bellmont was there to put it home.
The second half began with a pass through the seam to Syndey Keane, but her right-footed shot was just wide in front of the home fans.
In the 47th minute, with pressure continuing to build against Woodlan, Keane tried to connect with Rialey Cox on a far-post run, but the ball rolled just over the line just as Cox was ready to put the ball back across the box.
The Braves played the second half with the wind to their backs and blowing slightly left to right and at 53’, Keane shielded the ball and then turned and attempted to lob the ball over the goalie, but the ball landed into the top netting over the bar as yet another chance was not converted.