Girls Soccer: West Holmes holds off Dover’s comeback attempt
WEST HOLMES – The Dover girls’ soccer team’s second half comeback came up short as the Crimson Tornadoes fell to the West Holmes Knights 4-3 Tuesday.
From Dover Coach James Kline:
Final Score: Dover 3 – West Holmes 4
Location: West Holmes
Kickoff: 7:00 PM
Goals:
18:00 – West Holmes
25:00 – West Holmes
30:00 – West Holmes
39:00 – West Holmes
55:00 – Dover – Olivia VanDonge (PK)
62:45 – Dover – Alyssa Feller (assist Emilyn Feller)
68:42 – Dover – Emilyn Feller (assist Bridget McCrate)
On Tuesday night, the Dover Tornadoes took on the West Holmes Knights in a East District matchup. We came out firing on all cylinders and it was probably the best first ten minutes of a game that we’ve played to date, but unfortunately, we didn’t find any goals. Then, we had to learn some lessons the hard way. As a team we have talked about how not putting away our chances lets teams stay in the game and leaves little room for error. West Holmes was definitely not a team that we could squander our chances against because of their talent and workrate. They showed us that when they scored the game’s first goal in the 18th minute. The next lesson was how we need to limit our mistakes and clean them up quickly so they don’t compound into something more. West Holmes again showed us another lesson and showed how one goal can turn into more very quickly when they scored again seven minutes later, again five minutes after that, and then again nine minutes after that.
Going into half down 4-0 typically is a very demoralizing event and you tend to start thinking when is it time to give some of the younger players some learning experience.
This game was different, we knew we could compete against this team and it wasn’t a 4-0 type of game. We told the girls at the end of the game, we commended them for their efforts because they finally started to believe in themselves and played with some passion in the second half. From the jump, we came out again firing and you could tell this half was going to be different. Fifteen minutes into the half, Emilyn Feller was tackled from behind in the box earning us our penalty kick. Senior captain Olivia VanDonge stepped and gave us our first desperately needed goal. The first one is always the hardest and now the girls truly started to believe that coming back was a possibility. Seven minutes later the Feller sisters connected for our second goal when Emilyn made a great cross and Alyssa put it away for our second goal. Six minutes later, Bridget McCrate beat one defender and then another to get off a great cross that Emilyn Feller was able to push past the goalkeeper for our third goal. Unfortunately, in the last twelve minutes of the game we just couldn’t find that equalizer.
It’s never fun or good to lose, but at times it can be beneficial. It showed the girls that they have a different level then they knew and they will need to play at that level if they want to win tonight at Weir High School in West Virginia.
JV RESULTS
On Tuesday, September 20, Dover JV girls’ Soccer traveled to West Holmes, where the Tornadoes won 13-0. Goals were scored by: 3 by Cashlyn Harmon (#11, Freshman); 2 by Emilyn Feller (#10, Sophomore); Ansley Bolon (#18, Freshman); Abby Jones (#13, Sophomore); Hayley McPeek (#22, Sophomore); Rachel Pfeiffer (#15, Sophomore); Miley Patton (#19, Freshman); Kenzie Wright (#3, Sophomore); and 2 goals by Jenna Molk (#4, Freshman). Rachel Pfeiffer and Cashlyn Harmon had an assist each. Dover’s record is 8-0-2.