In an exciting Wednesday night showdown, the fans at MacDonald Stadium in Newland were treated to a soccer match pitting two talented and exciting high school soccer teams. Although the #5 ranked Avery Lady Vikings held the lead on two separate occasions in the contest, a resilient group of Hendersonville Lady Bearcats took advantage of a key Avery injury and utilized an adept crossing game to defeat the Lady Vikings 4-2 in overtime.Avery came into the home contest looking to avenge an embarrassing 3-0 loss in Hendersonville which saw the Lady Bearcats take advantage of the Big Red early and often in a lopsided first half. This story began differently, however, as the Lady Vikings were the girls to draw first blood, when Elyse Perry assisted on a terrific display of dribbling and shot-making by freshman Emily Banner, staking Avery to a 1-0 lead in the fifth minute of the contest.
Hendersonville knotted the match at 1-1 in the 38th minute on a Carissa Jones rebound in the box and shot on goal. The tally was the last of the half as the teams went into intermission tied.
Avery was dealt a costly blow in the 52nd minute when senior starter Katie Peters suffered an ankle injury and had to be helped off the field. Peters was unable to return to the match, subtracting an experienced leader off the pitch for the Big Red.
Despite the adversity, Avery regained the lead at 2-1 when Mary Chesnut Smith was fouled in the penalty area near the Hendersonville goal and converted a successful penalty kick in the 60th minute to give the Lady Vikings a 2-1 lead. The Lady Vikings were playing with much confidence against a talented Hendersonville squad and looked poised to pull off the home victory.
Hendersonville would not lay down and quit, however, battling back to tie the match on a Sam Reeves follow goal to tie the match at 2-2 in the 68th minute. The two teams continued to compete through the remainder of regulation, with goalkeeper Cailan Calloway fending off a couple of late Lady Bearcat scoring attempts to keep the contest tied at 2 goals apiece and force the match into two-10 minute overtime sessions.
In the third minute of the first overtime session the Lady Bearcats tallied a second goal from Reeves to give the Lady Bearcats their first lead at 3-2. Despite playing five freshmen and three sophomores for much of the contest, the Lady Vikings continued to stand up to a physical and, at times, downright rough playing Lady Bearcats team. The first session ended with Hendersonville holding the one-goal advantage.
Hendersonville added a much-needed insurance goal three minutes into the second session of overtime, with Jones adding a second goal for a 4-2 edge in what proved to be the final margin of the match.
"I think the biggest turning factor of the match was losing Katie. She's a key player and it put pressure on our bench which plays well, but doesn't have a lot of experience. Without her as a threat up front, we had to juggle our lineup with positions that affect us down the road," Avery coach Tom Evaul said after the match. "The girls played hard and we're proud of them. I think the fans enjoyed this game more than they enjoyed the one where we won 7-1 because this is good soccer and two good teams who went head-to-head. We had three mental breakdowns, and Hendersonville scored goals on them and also got lucky."
Avery falls to 12-3-2 on the season and now takes a few days off to heal up before returning to the pitch to take on Mountain Heritage on April 28th.
