Southern Soccer Showcase

The ’92 Lady Avalanche of the High Country Soccer Association traveled to Winston-Salem for their final college showcase of the spring. Their first game was at 8AM Saturday morning, which meant a very early wake-up call for most.

The team is made up of girls from five high schools, in five different counties so it has been difficult to get enough together on a given weekend. Some of the girls had played high school games the night before. Emily Banner and Mary Chesnut Smith of Avery High play with two girls from Ashe, two from Wilkes Central, two from Hibriten and seven from Watauga High. The girls are all sophomores and juniors. It was 37 degrees on the field when the girls arrived for their 7 a.m. warm-ups. The field was soaking with dew and it wasn’t long before the girls’ socks and cleats were soaked.

The Three Rivers Soccer Alliance Legacy were the HCSA’s first opponents. The Legacy were ranked 8^th in Minnesota. In spite of the wet feet and the paucity of practices, the Lady Avalanche played great ball, going out eagerly and challenging for every ball. The wet ball made the play a little unpredictable and throw-ins a challenge.

The first thirty-minute half ended in a scoreless tie. Three minutes into the second half, the Lady Avalanche got on the scoreboard when Hibriten forward Hallie Hilliard connected with Watauga forward Skylar Hicks for the score. Twenty-five minutes later the Legacy tied the game up, leaving only a couple of minutes to play. The Lady Avalanche was not able to score again, ending the match with a 1-1 draw.

The Lady Avalanche had an early morning turn into a long day, as the various teammates found ways to occupy themselves until their 5 PM game. The showcase provided lots of soccer to watch, as there were club and college teams playing all day long.

The ACC teams played each other and the other NCAA teams played two games each during the afternoon. There were also three question-and-answer periods hosted by the Twin City Soccer Club, showcase sponsors, featuring college coaches from Wake Forest, Elon, UNC-W and Western Carolina.

Players, parents and club coaches asked questions of the coaches about their school and about the whole recruiting process.

For the 5 p.m. game, the conditions were vastly different. During the day the temperature had risen about 25 degrees and the fields had dried out, and the sun was also a factor. The opponents were from the FC Carolina Alliance club, with this team of girls being from Rowan County.

All of the scoring came in the first half, with the Lady Avalanche getting on the board first in the 10^th minute. Skylar Hicks netted her second goal of the day, being in place to get a loose ball which had bounced off the FCAA Rowan keeper and placing it in the back of the net.

About nine minutes later the Rowan team got a corner kick and before the Avalanche could get the ball cleared, an FCAA player put the ball in the goal.

In the 25^th minute, a FCAA Rowan forward took the ball up the left-side of the field and crossed the ball to the goal. The ball hit the far goal post and bounced into the goal for the go-ahead goal.

In the second half, the two teams battled back and forth, but neither team got a lucky break or made a mistake that the other team could take advantage of, so the score remained the same as FCCA Rowan took a 2-1 victory.

The Lady Avalanche traveled back down the mountain on Sunday for their third game of the weekend to face a CASL Spartan United team. The game was played on BB&T field #11 at 11 a.m. on April 11^th, and was probably the best game of the weekend as far as excitement factor.

It started out looking like the Lady Avalanche were playing a bigger, more physical team with numerous subs sitting on the bench, ready to give the starters a break in the mid-day heat. It took the CASL Spartans only two minutes to get on the scoreboard, reinforcing the early impressions.

However, the Lady Avalanche settled down and the defense stepped up, seeing lots of action early in the game. As the HCSA defense was able to get the ball up to the offense, the game momentum evened out, and it became more of a give-and-take game.

The Avalanche evened up the score at the halfway point in the first half when Kendyl Baird of Watauga got the ball to Avery’s Mary Chesnut Smith, who was able to get the ball past the Spartan keeper.

Not to be outdone, the Spartans got another goal in the closing minutes of the first half to take a 2-1 lead into half time. Coach Kiki Wallace, who is also Director of Coaching for the HCSA, made some position changes to start the second half.

Normally mid-fielders together, Coach Kiki placed Smith and Ashe’s Kebrina Keys on the front line together for the first time this year. About nine minutes into the second half, the pair connected; Smith crossed the ball into the goal face where Keys made a beautiful goal off a header.

The Spartans got fired up and eight minutes later scored a goal off a high shot which was difficult for the Avalanche keeper to even see due to the sun position and the angle of the shot.

About four minutes later, the Lady Avalanche was awarded an indirect free kick off of a Spartan foul.

With the Spartans on all sides of the box, ready to charge the ball, the kickers made sure the referee gave them ten yards clearance in all directions. The Spartans charged the ball on the whistle instead of waiting for the first tap, deflecting the shot.

Coach Kiki was irate and let the referee know in no uncertain terms his displeasure with the no-call. He was awarded a yellow card for his efforts, and eventually Coach Kiki was given a red card and ejected from the game for continuing to challenge the call or lack thereof.

With only one substitute his ultimate hope was to fire the girls up, as he wasn’t needed on the sidelines to help the team with their subbing. HCSA president and team parent, Darren Mullenix took over as coach. About a minute later, the Avalanche were awarded another free kick, a direct kick this time and Keys sent a beautiful shot into goal to tie the score. Neither team was able to break the tie before time ran out as the match ended tied at 3-3.