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West Jessamine goalkeeper Rebekah Hulsing walked off the pitch following the 4-0 loss to Tates Creek. (Photo by Jonathan Stark/jstark@jessaminejournal.com / October 22, 2012) |
Last year’s trip to the state tournament for the West Jessamine girls’ soccer team lasted 10 days and included first- and second-round wins on their home field.
This year’s trip lasted only 80 minutes and came to a close with a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Tates Creek — a team West had played to a 1-1 draw just a few weeks before.
“(Tates Creek) has a quality squad, and Bo (Lankster) does a great job with them,” West Jessamine coach Kevin Wright said. “They’re loaded with juniors and seniors and have weapons all over the field. It just wasn’t our night.”
The Lady Colts — who are usually the aggressor — were thrown off their game in the early minutes as the Lady Commodores took a 1-0 lead with just four and a half minutes gone by.
Playing from behind was something new to West this postseason, having led most of the way in all four of its previous games.
Climbing out of the hole became even harder when Tates Creek was able to turn a free kick into its second goal of the night.
Down 2-0 with 26:20 remaining in the first half, the West offense struggled to even maintain possession on Tates Creek’s side of the pitch.
With 3:32 remaining in the half, the Commodores struck again to make it 3-0.
As the final minutes ticked away in the first half, it looked like West would go into the half down 3-0.
But then things got worse.
The Lady Colts kicked the ball out of bounds along the endline to give the Lady¿Commodores a corner kick with less than 10 seconds to play.
Tates kicked the ball into the box as the clock hit seven seconds. It bounced around in the box before a Creek player was able to get a head on the ball and drop it into the top left corner of the goal as time expired.
“We had a hard time on the flanks; everything came off a free kick, corner or crosses,” Wright said.
West Jessamine was looking at a 4-0 deficit on the scoreboard as it talked at halftime.
“You just can’t play from behind,” Wright said. “Everything is magnified, and one or two goals could be your season. We just had a tough time contecting passes ... You just can’t make mistakes; you have to connect your passes and work together.”
The next 40 minutes ticked by as West could not muster any good runs at the goal against Creek’s stingy defense.
West suffered its fifth loss of the season and sixth shutout.
