Eagles cap impressive journey to title, 2-1 in OT
Toolbox
By Tom Haley STAFF WRITER - Published: November 8, 2009
Call it the youth movement that helped lift Arlington to a 1-0 overtime victory over South Royalton in the Division IV state championship game in girls soccer.
A freshman got the goal and a first-year goalie the shutout.
The first 10-minute sudden overtime was nearing its end when freshman Rayleen Sherman capitalized on a misplay by a South Royalton defender. It gave her an opening and she coolly dribbled it through the box and hit it less than 10 yards in front of the goal, giving SoRo's outstanding keeper Allie Hull no chance.
"She kept her composure," Arlington coach Chris Belnap said of Sherman.
She wasn't so sure.
"I didn't think it was going in," Sherman said after the game at College of Saint Joseph.
But it did, giving the Arlington girls soccer program its first state crown since 2002.
It's a special story that the Eagles earned the top seed and lifted up the trophy with a 16-1 record. Back in August when they reported to practice, they had no goalkeeper.
"Our goalkeeper from last year decided not to play this year," junior Kayla Griffin said. "Nobody wanted to do it so I said that I would take it."
Griffin had a quiet first half, but the Royals peppered her in the second half, pressing the attack more and more as the game wore on.
She did not always save the ball cleanly, but she always knocked it down and quickly recovered it.
Griffin gave plenty of credit to her defensive mates: Elizabeth Macksey, Aliza Pickering and Lizzie Zakrzewski.
"They were amazing. They knew where to be," Griffin said.
There was one crossing shot by South Royalton's Shanna Duffy that seemed to be heading for the goal. But Macksey made a nice play, deflecting the ball and Griffin was able to corral it off the deflection.
"Without her, that probably would have been a goal," Griffin said.
Duffy was a handful with her runs into the box. But so was Roselie Phillip with her powerful throw-ins that gave the Royals a number of chances. Logan Russell also came close to scoring a few times.
And South Royalton coach Chuck Howe had plenty of play for Megan Whitcomb and the way she controlled the middle of the field for his club and also helped trigger the transition from defense to offense.
Maggie Belnap was again a machine gun for the Eagles. The junior who unloaded shot after shot in the semifinals and put four of them high into the net, was shooting from the perimeter and frequently was on target.
But Hull is a tall and talented keeper and those shots that were getting under the crossbar for goals on Wednesday were being flagged down by Hull.
SoRo had the last real good scoring chance in regulation time. It was a header by Duffy that Griffin was able to bat away.
The play in the overtime session was all-out. The spirit and the effort were there, but sometimes the legs were not as players tried desperately to get to balls but were perceptibly at least a step slower.
But when Sherman had her chance with just 1:49 left in the first overtime, she let the adrenaline take over and ended the contest.
A large contingent of Arlington fans closed in on the postgame ceremony as captains Belnap, Pickering and Lauren Elwell stepped forward to received the trophy.
It was a moment coach Belnap saw as attainable back when his team found a way to beat Green Mountain 5-3 after trailing 3-0 at halftime.
The other game that impressed him and gave him reason to think this was a special team was in its only loss, a 2-1 decision against Twin Valley.
"They lost but they never stopped playing," he said.
They didn't on this day, either.
The same could be said for the Royals.
"We talked about wearing them down at halftime and I think we did that," Howe said.
But in the end, the freshman from Arlington had the answer.
tom.haley@rutlandherald.com
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