Staff
It seemed like it would go on forever.
Then Adyson Wilson-Hands and Katie Stearns decided it was time to go home.
Wilson-Hands had the game-winning goal in an incredible 16-round shootout, and Stearns made the last of 14-straight saves, as Goal Diggers capped a remarkable playoff turnaround with a 3-2 triumph over D-Feeters in the final of the Borderland Women’s Indoor Soccer League last Wednesday at Fort High.
Goal Diggers entered the post-season as the last-place team during the regular season with a 2-6 record, but upset first-place Kicker Instinct 4-1 in the semi-finals.
With just the minimum five players available and leading scorer Paige Nelson missing for the second-straight week, the underdog squad seemed to be in dire straits early in the second half against D-Feeters.
Macey McMillen, without a goal during the season, surprised Goal Diggers’ starting keeper Lorina Fryer with a one-timer just 35 seconds into the game to put D-Feeters up 1-0.
Fryer then switched to the fullback position with the late arrival of Stearns.
But eight minutes into the second half, Jaymee Fiset had her original shot blocked and bounce right back to her, which led to her splitting two defenders and walking in to rocket a shot past Stearns for a 2-0 advantage.
Just as quickly, though, Tanya Hughes found her scoring touch from a week earlier that led to a hat trick against Kicker Instinct.
She intercepted a clearing pass on the left side of the floor and ripped a 15-footer inside the far post a minute after Fiset’s marker to cut the lead in half.
Only another minute passed before Jess Badiuk found Hughes alone in the slot and fed her the ball, which Hughes promptly blasted past D-Feeters’ goalie Phyllis Pierson to tie the affair.
The rest of regulation and the overtime featured an avalanche of unbelievable saves by Stearns and Pierson as neither keeper was willing to buckle.
That meant the first shootout in league history to decide the champion.
Wilson-Hands and then McMillen went first for their respective teams in the originally-scheduled three-round shootout, but both were denied.
Then after Hughes also was thwarted, Fiset cranked a shot past Stearns to put D-Feeters one save away from the title.
But Stearns, proving adept at both ends of the floor, smashed the ball to the low corner past Pierson to keep Goal Diggers alive.
After Maddy Morrison was stopped by Stearns, it was time for the teams to exchange shots one at a time until one had scored and the other had missed within the same round.
Stearns and Pierson put on an extended showcase of phenomenal netminding–each turning aside the next dozen shooters they faced.
With the combination of fatigue and pressure emotionally draining every person in the room, Wilson-Hands delivered the decisive marker with a top-shelf bullet that Pierson couldn’t get to in time.
Elaine Walsh then stepped up with a chance to keep things going for D-Feeters. But Stearns read the shot the whole way and got her body in front of it to end the marathon.
In the third-place game earlier that night, Tough Enough completed Kicker Instinct’s fall from first to worst with a 5-0 trouncing of the regular-season champs.
Sara Roach was the story in that one as the Muskie girls’ soccer coach led the attack with four goals.
Carmen Atatise netted the other one.
The league next will hold its annual awards banquet, with the date still to be decided.
