The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
ONEIDA, VVS BATTLE TO A DRAW
ONEIDA, N.Y. »
Even with overtime, it was not enough for the Oneida and Vernon-Verona-Sherrill girls soccer sides on Tuesday as the two teams battled to a 0-0 tie under the lights.
Despite holding a 4-0 advantage on corners, Oneida was unable to convert and put one past Red Devil keeper Samantha Bently.
Oneida held a slight edge in shots over the visitors firing at the goal 15 times to VVS’ 11 as both Bently and her counterpart in the net Kyra Shlotzhauer posted impressive performances.
Oneida and VVS were like two fighters in the opening rounds of a bout as both teams traded probing runs throughout the first half, testing the back line of the opposing defense.
The Red Devils recorded the first shot of the game three minutes into play as Alexa Kiser launched a deep shot toward the Oneida goal, but the attempt did not bother Oneida goalie Kyra Shlotzhauer as she coolly collected the attempt.
Oneida nearly took an early 1-0 lead moments later when Rachel DeRuby found open space five minutes into the contest and fired a shot toward the top left corner, but Bently made a nice save to keep the hosts off the scoreboard. As the first half came to a close, a DeRuby corner kick flirted with the far post, but Bently snatched the ball out of the air just before it would have broken the plane of the goal. On the proceeding counter-attack, VVS almost beat
Shlotzhauer far post, but the shot went just wide.
Following the back-andforth first half, DeRuby earned the first shot of the second half off of the opening kick off, but her shot went wide left.
Oneida applied the pressure early in the half as the hosts held possession in their own offensive half for the majority of the first ten minutes. Kaya Suppa and Sophie Sanchez took turns f lying down the Oneida wings to apply pressure to the Red Devil defense.
Oneida came close to getting one by Bently 10 minutes into the second half. DeRuby sent Sanchez on a run down the wing. Sanchez sent a through ball to Sarah Paul who then crossed the ball to DeRuby for the best Oneida chance of the night, but Bently came up huge for the visitors to smother the threat.
After weathering the ferocious Oneida attack to open the second half of play, VVS began to respond with quick counterstrikes, putting Oneida defenders on their heels midway through the half. Like their VVS counterparts however, the Oneida defense bent but never broke.
Overtime did not resolve anything, as the teams closed out the extra peri- ods and the game knotted at 0-0.
Shawn Lyncy’s Red Devils now sit at 3-6-1 in the TVL Pioneer League while Scott Fallon’s Oneida side moves to 7-3-1.
“I am proud of our girls for their effort. We played a little different system than we normally do to be a little more offensive and it worked. Nicole Smith sat in front of a wall in the back as our defensive midfielder and had a hell of a game,” Fallon said. “I respect the VVS program. This was a good match between two teams and two coaches that respect each other. Two programs that respect each other, and that’s what you want in high school sports.”