Fred T. Foard’s Ofelia Tamas, 10, tries to advance the ball as East Lincoln’s Sadie Badgett, 4, applies pressure during Tuesday’s match in Newton. The Mustangs topped the Tigers by a 1-0 final in overtime.
NEWTON — After recording five shutouts to begin the 2022 season, the Fred T. Foard girls soccer team finally surrendered a goal. It took visiting East Lincoln over 97 minutes to find the back of the net, but that one score was enough to nab a 1-0 overtime victory over the Tigers on Tuesday night.
The Mustangs applied constant pressure against Foard, attempting shot after shot and being denied time and time again. Senior Alexis Wolgemuth displayed her goalkeeping prowess for the Tigers, while Foard also made an early in-game adjustment by keeping an extra defender back to combat East Lincoln’s attackers.
“Like I just told the girls, we have nothing to hang our heads about tonight,” Foard coach Stan Elliott said. “East Lincoln came out and they were ready to play and they knocked the ball around. For us it was a bend-but-don’t-break (defense), we had to change things up, added another defender because they made us change our system, and it’s a credit to East Lincoln and the caliber of players that (East Lincoln coach) Jason Dragoon puts out on the field.
“Our back line played well, our mids played well,” he added. “We had girls playing in uncomfortable positions that they’re not used to and obviously we have an all-world goalie in Alexis, so it is what it is. It stinks giving up a goal that late, but we’ll build off of this.”
East Lincoln (5-1, 2-0 Western Foothills 3A Conference) earned its first corner kick of many less than two minutes into the match, but the resulting try was off to the right. Foard countered by getting into the Mustangs’ box moments later to no avail, and the Tigers also got a decent look in the ninth minute off a throw-in by Lily Spangler that was tapped back to her by Ofelia Tamas. However, Spangler’s shot attempt from the left side of the field was taken in by East Lincoln keeper Kelsey Campo.
On the opposite end, Wolgemuth continued her stellar work in between the posts. She stopped a pair of incoming shots and caught a corner kick early in the 12th minute, and about five minutes later Grace Harpster got one of East Lincoln’s cleanest looks of the night, but Wolgemuth was there to catch the shot and boot it away. Tamas immediately streaked the other way for a shot from the left side of the box that was corralled by Campo once again.
Harpster tried to score again with around 18 minutes remaining in the opening half, but her shot was wide right. East Lincoln attempted a couple more shots in the 25th minute, with the initial shot deflecting off the crossbar and Wolgemuth punching the second try away for another Mustangs corner kick that was again gathered in by the Foard (5-1-1, 1-1) keeper.
More corner kicks followed for the Mustangs, but attempts in the 27th, 29th, 30th and 32nd minutes were unsuccessful. And despite a nice run by East Lincoln’s Abbie Hege that saw her advance into the box late in the first half, a trio of Tigers — Tamas, Spangler and Monse Sanchez — converged to keep her from getting off a shot.
East Lincoln’s offense didn’t let up a bit in the second half, but Foard continued to keep the Mustangs off the scoreboard. East Lincoln garnered three corner kicks within the first five minutes of the half that again failed to break the deadlock, while Wolgemuth made one of her most impressive saves of the contest in the 52nd minute. The Mustangs’ Deana Poteat got into the left side of the box and sent a screamer that Wolgemuth got her hand on, then crawled over to grab the ball before another East Lincoln player could slide in and tap it into the right side of the net.
After a free kick by East Lincoln’s Sadie Cunningham from just inside midfield was wide left in the 57th minute, Poteat again made Wolgemuth work. Again from the left side of the box, Poteat rocketed a ball toward the net that Wolgemuth somehow managed to get her left foot on before it was eventually cleared by a teammate.
Brianna McClough came up huge for the Tigers on multiple occasions as well, stepping up to clear balls from the box. Additionally, Foard’s Anna Schmidt stole a cross and sprinted the other way before East Lincoln regained possession in the 72nd minute and Julia Chesson tried to run up the right side for a late shot attempt before a Mustangs defender kicked the ball out of bounds as regulation came to an end.
Prior to Chesson’s last-second effort, Foard survived a few more close calls, none closer than when a Foard player was called for a handball in the box in the 77th minute, giving Poteat a chance to go one-on-one against Wolgemuth on a penalty kick. Nevertheless, Poteat’s initial PK bounced off the right upright and Wolgemuth was able to lay out to stop her second shot attempt off the deflection.
Woglemuth and her Foard teammates turned away numerous East Lincoln shots throughout the first 10-minute overtime period, and it looked like the same was going to be true of the second 10-minute OT period before Hege placed a ball into the left corner of the net from the right side of the box off an assist from Morgan Brotherton with 2:48 to play. While the Tigers desperately tried to score in the closing minutes, the Mustangs ultimately held on for the slimmest of victories.
“They’re so quick, they’re just soccer players,” said Elliott of East Lincoln. “They’re big, they’re fast, they’re physical, they play the game the right way, and credit to what Jason’s doing over there, he’s got a good group over there.
“You’ve got to play against good teams in order to test yourself, and it’s no different,” he continued. “We go after the tough teams in the state in preparation for the big dance at the end of the year, and hopefully we’ll make it.”
East Lincoln visits North Iredell next Tuesday, while Foard will look to regroup when it hosts North Lincoln on Friday.
Josh McKinney is the sports editor for the Hickory Daily Record.
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Fred T. Foard’s Ofelia Tamas, 10, tries to advance the ball as East Lincoln’s Sadie Badgett, 4, applies pressure during Tuesday’s match in Newton. The Mustangs topped the Tigers by a 1-0 final in overtime.
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