DANE FUELLING
WZBD.com
DECATUR – Wednesday night was filled with dramatic moments, tough situations and memorable passages of play, but perhaps the most difficult decision of the night fell on the shoulders and the mind of head coach Steve Lee.
It wasn’t the decision he had to make on who would take the five penalties in the shootout.
It wasn’t who was going to take the sixth, or the seventh…… or the eighth penalty.
No, it was likely answering this question that was the toughest: Whom do I name the man of the match?
There was certainly no shortage of candidates from an epic win that will go down as one of the great victories for the Bellmont program over the last decade.
Playing for a spot in the regional championship game, the Braves hosted Concordia Lutheran for a rematch from earlier in the year when Bellmont beat the Cadets, 3-2.
Much like the first half of Saturday’s sectional championship game against Canterbury, the two teams played the opening 40 minutes to a scoreless draw. Bellmont controlled play for the most part, holding the Cadets to just one shot on goal in the opening half and forcing Concordia goalie Jennifer Dressler to make four saves.
Ten minutes into the second half, Anna Ruble picked out a ball from the six-yard box (see photos below) and knocked it home, putting the Braves up 1-0.
The Cadets answered back with a goal of their own, scoring from a corner kick that created chaos in the box. Emma Groves slotted it home and knotted the contest at 1-1.
The Braves had to absorb considerable pressure late in regulation due to the dangerous midfield play of Kori Brown, who was consistently linking up with forward Reagan Metel to challenge the back line of the home team.
The two teams found themselves playing in two short, seven-minute periods of extra time with a shootout looming.
Bellmont almost didn’t get the chance to take it to penalties.
In one instance of Brown and Metel connecting, a dangerous ball was played into the box and goalie Emily Barton got caught by either her own teammate or a Concordia forward. The play was blown dead and the clock was stopped, with Barton visibly shook from the contact. A tough competitor (see gallery below), Barton got play back underway but could be seen shaking her hand and trying to fight off the pain.
Head coach Steve Lee revealed after the game that Barton feared she had broken her hand in the melee. Remarkably, Barton made two outstanding saves after that point with what was, in fact, a broken hand.
The Braves survived the onslaught by Concordia in the extra 14 minutes and went to penalties. That gave Lee the option of replacing Barton, which he mercifully did, selecting back-up Mary Bleke to try and save the night with Barton in pain and in no shape to be put under that kind of pressure.
Barton could be seen on the sideline instructing her understudy what to do, showing great team spirit.
While the two teams had played 94 minutes, they had to accept the fact that five spot kicks from each team would settle the match and determine the winner, while also ending the season of the losing side and the careers of the corresponding seniors.
The first domino to fall was a missed penalty by the Cadets’ leading scorer, Metel. Facing a considerably taller keeper, now, Metel went high and the Braves followed that up by converting their first attempt – a smash by their leading scorer, Gwen Laurent.
1-0.
Bleke then came up with the first save (see below) of the shootout by stopping the attempt by Elyse Metz, sending the Bellmont bench into a frenzy. Maggie Wilson calmly finished her attempt and the Braves were flying.
2-0.
Concordia finally got on the board with a shot by Abigail Hawk, out of reach of Bleke, but Adi Knipstein hit a no-doubter to keep Bellmont’s momentum rolling.
3-1.
Kori Brown, an instigator of mischief throughout the match for Concordia, and a player with 22 goals for the Cadets as a sophomore, converted her attempt and that was followed by the first save of the shootout by Dressler, extending the match to the fifth round.
3-2.
The Cadets heaped a bunch of pressure on Maylee Koesters when they chose her to take the fifth penalty, but the defender delivered with an excellent penalty off the hands of a diving Bleke that drew the two teams even. Bellmont had a chance to win it with the fifth penalty taker, but could not get the shot on frame and it went to sudden death.
3-3.
Concordia retained the right to shoot first in the sixth round and Khloe Klopfenstein put Bellmont up against elimination for the first time by making her spot kick, heaping the weight of the entire season on the shoulders of freshman Oni Krueckeberg.
“She wanted that sixth kick, I couldn’t go with anyone else,” admitted Lee after the game.
Krueckeberg kept Bellmont in the game with a great penalty.
4-4.
Mary Bleke stayed on the ball, leaped upwards and held on to the attempt by Groves, who had scored the goal for the Cadets earlier, but Bellmont also failed to convert, extending the match deeper into the crisp night.
4-4.
Nobody was more excited about Mary Bleke’s save in the eighth round on Amelia Salway’s attempt than Emily Barton and it cleared the way for Bellmont to finally finish off the Cadets with the attempt by Lanie French.
French took a deep breath and incorporated a bit of a hop into her run-up, throwing off the timing of her one-time classmate Dressler, who dove somewhat early and was unable to collect the sophomore’s attempt, which went into the back of the net and sent the Braves into a frenzy.
5-4.
Asked after the match about that Man of the Match award, Lee had to make his toughest call.
“If you can only name one, it’s French,” he said of the winning penalty taker.
“But if you can name two, it’s gotta be Bleke and Barton in goal,” he said with a smile.
“Now if you have three, you do all three. But honestly, you need four because (Anna) Ruble deserves it as well.”
Laughing off the idea of choosing his MVP for the night, Lee turned to a more serious thought.
“That’s who we are. That’s the depth that we have that makes us different from other years and teams. We play for each other.”
Bellmont will take on #3 Mishawaka Marian on their home field Saturday at 2 p.m.
WZBD will, as we have been throughout this postseason, be there with the live broadcast for our listeners. Coverage will begin with pre-match content on our YouTube channel, with the broadcast moving to 92.7 FM upon the completion of the volleyball sectional semifinals (slated to begin at 12:30 Saturday afternoon).
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