Columbia gets first win over stingy Vermilion

The Sailors controlled possession most of the match, but the Raiders made the most of their opportunities to score three times and take a 3-1 season-opening victory.

Columbia’s timely goals lifted the Raiders to a 3-1 victory on Aug. 23 over host Vermilion for its first win of the 2017 campaign against a very stingy opponent.

Scoring key goals in the first and last 10 minutes of the match, Columbia was able to hang on for a key win, despite Vermilion controlling the time of possession.

Collecting goals from three different players, senior captain Lanie Welker got the Raiders going on a rush advantage to put the Raiders on the board. That woke up the Sailors’ offense as Vermilion upped its intensity for the rest of the half, but Columbia sneaked in one more goal for the half just 10 minutes later with 21 minutes to go as junior Sammi Carrico found the back of the net on a rush.

“I think we controlled the midfield well. We might not have had time of possession, but midfield we won that battle and that’s where we were really hoping for,” Columbia coach Fritz Welker said. “We have some good finishers. The first goal from far out, I mean it’s a deadly shot. Our goals today were nice goals and sure-footed and that’s what we needed today.”

Playing from behind, the Sailors used halftime as a new jumping off point with opportunities left on the field in the first half against a very good goalie in Columbia’s senior captain Danielle Matzelle.

Forcing the ball into Raider territory for much of

the first half, Vermilion and coach Kristen Hayden told her team to focus on finishing as opportunities came up with a high energy level.

“That’s what we talked about at halftime, I felt like the first half we didn’t have the energy that I know that is in them and the enthusiasm and to stop putting so much pressure to have a little fun,” Hayden said. “I feel like in the second half they certainly did that and they came out like a ball of fire ready to play and their energy was up.”

Less than four minutes into the second, senior Kayleigh Penton made some nifty moves in front of the net to put the Sailors on the board.

Looking for more chances against Matzelle in goal, Vermilion got a huge chance with 21 minutes left in the match with a penalty kick. Playing on one of the few grass fields in the area, the ball got hung up on a Sailors’ boot and the kick rolled casually to Matzelle’s gloves and the big threat was over.

As both sides traded possessions, the Raiders’ Allison Bouscher iced the game with a rocket shot past the Sailors for the put-away goal with under eight minutes left that saved the day for Columbia.

Getting contributions from several different players, Welker said he is extremely fortunate to have so many different finishers on his squad showing a lot of promise early on.

“It’s definitely a blessing for any coach to have several players that can score and we have four to five that can score at anytime and that takes the pressure off each one of them,” Welker said. “We have our leading scorers with Lanie Welker and Sammi Carrico, Sam does a fantastic job finishing and she’s become more of a complete player this year. Now she’s also great at distributing the ball. She had two assists out of our three goals today.”

To complement the Columbia offense, Matzelle finished with 14 in goal and helped dictate the defense to get the team’s first win of the season.

“They were doing a lot of footwork moves, cutting back and forth, beating the defenders, but I think they handled it as well as they could, our defenders did, and tried to keep them outside and clearing it out,” Matzelle said. “One of our other defenders is out right now and we have a freshman there so we’ve been working hard at practice to get everyone connected and involved and they did good today, especially compared to Monday.”

Missing out on some big chances, Hayden and the Sailors know this one could have been a different outcome with a little more focus and patience.

“We didn’t capitalize on the finishes. We put a lot of emphasis at halftime on playing to feet, keeping possession and we did that really well. We just took the emphasis off finishing the ball for some reason,” Hayden said. “We had the opportunities, we just needed to finish them.”