The prospect of, arguably, the biggest match of the season ending in a tie did not appeal to Community Christian School girls soccer head coach Carl Bradshaw.
However, talented CCS sixth-grader Haley Brown would have been OK with a deadlock. And Christ Covenant School head coach Paul Gibbs would not have minded.
“Nobody wants to play 80 minutes of soccer and have the match end in a tie,” Bradshaw insisted.
When an assistant coach mentioned the possibility of the final score being knotted, Bradshaw replied: “I want to win this match.”
Said Brown: “I wish it had ended in a tie. But we will get them back when we see them in the playoffs.”
The teams deadlocked in their 2023 meeting and Gibbs remarked: “The two teams leading the conference in a hard-fought game, a tie would have been what I would have expected. Especially with it being an away game for us. There was very little separation between the two teams.”
However, Christ Covenant came away with a 4-3 conquest in a showdown of the Mid-Atlantic Christian Athletic Association North (CCS) and South Division (Christ Covenant) front-runners.
The Spartans’ Lydia Taylor took a cross from Brielle Dameron and sliced in the winning goal with two minutes remaining. CCS did not threaten in the final 120 seconds of a fan-appealing match played on a sun-splashed Thursday afternoon.
The Spartans won for the 10th time in 12 matches and remained undefeated (6-0) in MACAA South Division. Since the teams play in different divisions, the outcome did not affect their division marks — leaving the Cyclones 6-0 in the North Division and 8-3 overall. CCS welcomes nonconference foe Greenville Christian on Friday afternoon.
CCS launched a stirring comeback when Brown tapped in a goal that trimmed the CCS deficit to 3-2 with 23 minutes left. Eighth-grader Ava Dunn’s move toward the Spartans’ goal brought Christ Covenant senior goalkeeper Olivia Entzminger out of goal. Entzminger took out Dunn but fell in the process. Dunn managed to tap the ball to Brown, who swiftly put the ball into the open goal.
In the next eight minutes, the only semblance of a Spartans’ threat was a free kick by junior Anna Clare Phillips that CCS freshman goalkeeper Claire Carter batted away, and senior Addison Parker took a corner kick.
The Cyclones kept firing on attempts from Dunn, Brown, eighth-grader Barrett Godwin and Ventura before Godwin pounced on a loose ball that the Spartans’ keeper failed to corral. Godwin slipped the ball into the goal for a 3-3 tie with 14:31 to go.
That’s when CCS’ Bradshaw made his decision.
“I had two options,” Bradshaw explained. “We could have set back on defense and played for the tie, but I moved them up. (The outcome) doesn’t affect our seeding; we played to win. I played to win, and we got beat.”
Brown agreed the final result was heartbreaking.
“We were trying but they were more into it,” Brown said of the play the final 10 minutes. “But the comeback was awesome. We were losing, and we stepped up and got our two goals (to tie). I kind of figured we would either pull it off or (the match would) end in a tie.”
“It was teamwork and not a one-on-one effort,” Gibbs said of the winning goal. I was really pleased with the effort.The Cyclones grabbed a 1-0 lead in the ninth minute. Sophom*ore Abril Ventura scored after a long shot ricocheted off the right post.
However, the Cyclones lost a player to injury for the rest of the match, while a pair of Christ Covenant players were shaken up but returned.
The Spartans pulled even at 1-1 on Dameron’s goal with 21:20 left before halftime. Spartans senior Gracie Glick could not finish two shots from close range, but seconds later, converted Parker’s corner kick for a 2-1 halftime edge.
Lydia Taylor then assisted Parker’s goal for a 3-1 Christ Covenant cushion with less than two minutes elapsed in the second half.
“Community Christian scored a goal to start the game with the lead,” Gibbs reviewed. “They were putting pressure on us. We came back on them, but they were attacking well and playing with persistence.”
Keying the CCS comeback, said Coach Bradshaw, was moving eighth-grader Autumn Bradhshaw from center back to midfield.
The CCS head coach noted. “I was very pleased with the comeback. When we got down the two goals, we started playing tentatively. But when we moved Autumn, things started happening.”
Coach Bradshaw also lauded his sixth-grader, Brown.
“She’s wise beyond her years,” he said. “She also plays the game above her years.”
Brown didn’t seem to understand that impact from a 12-year-old was unlikely in a huge outing.
“I just play my hardest and trust my teammates,” she said. “I trust they will get the ball to me. I played pretty well, but I could have done better on traps and moving out in space.”
Coach Bradshaw expresses confidence his Cyclones will be ready for Friday’s test, but emphasizes: “Our goal is to see (Christ Covenant) again in the championship game.”
