Lady Bulldogs Honor Stephanie Putney's Memory With Tournament MVP Award
Given the quality of the overall performance, especially on defense, it would have been a very difficult decision for Heuvelton Coach Gus Burns to select a Most Valuable Player after the Lady Bulldogs downed the host Blue Devils 1-0 in the championship of the OFA Preseason Soccer Tournament Tuesday night.
The Bulldogs made the choice for him....unanimously.
"I talked to the girls after the game and they all had one name. Stephanie Putney," said Coach Burns after his team (2-0-1) honored its school's longtime coach, former athletic director and physical education instructor who died in July after a heroic battle against cancer.
"We are playing every game to honor Stephanie's memory and we played extremely well tonight. OFA is a very good team and extremely fast up front. They pressed us but our defense of Linsay Tennant, Maddie St. Pierre, Jenna Lashua and Kelli Hebert just didn't make a mistake."
The two goalies in the high-caliber defensive duel were both honored with All-Tournament selections after Sanna Jaquith handled 11 saves for a shutout and Allysha Bracy stopped 12 shots in the Devils' crease including two stops on break-aways in the second half.
The only goal of the night came with 18:18 remaining in the first half when a crossing shot by Sara Sloan into heavy traffic in front of the net and a clearing attempt bounded off a defender and into the net.
"We had three girls competing for our number one goaltender spot and Sanna Jaquith has just stepped forward. She played her best game ever tonight," said Coach Burns.
"And Sara Sloan made the right play on the ball time after time."
Rounding out the All-Tournament team were Lisbon forward Aleashia Parmeter who delivered one goal and one assist in the consolation game and Salmon River's Karyss Terrance who picked an assist on one of several dangerous crosses she authored in the contest. Salmon River placed third by virtue of a shootout after the teams played to a double overtime 2-2 tie.
"We had several girls who deserved an All-Tournament Award for their efforts. Alana Ashley has done a great job moving into the sweeper-stopper position and Chelsea Martin's speed and athleticism was a factor throughout both games," said OFA Coach Lauren Morley.
"Mackenzie Cole, Nikki Holmes, Meg Dodge and Makenzi Stevenson were all relentless. We had some nice ball movement on the ground but Heuvelton did a very good job at reading and running through our passes."
SR 2 - Lisbon 2 (SR wins SO): Salmon River displayed superior shooting power throughout the contest where Karyss Terrance tied the score at 2-2 with 15:05 remaining in regulation off a pass from Teisha Mitchell who also tied the score at 1-1 with an unassisted goal 17:03 before halftime.
That ability to drive the ball with authority controlled the shootout where Karennotakies Barnes, Terrance, Karleigh Cree and Sky Timmons all buried bullet-like drives out of the reach of Jackie Sovie who rendered a stellar 16-save performance for Lisbon.
"This was a really good experience for the girls to play the overtimes and the shootout," said Lisbon Coach Scott Richardson. "We played a good team to a tie and played much better soccer than we did in the first round."
Lisbon gained leads of 1-0 and 2-1 through the setup and finishing combination of Beth Crowley and Aleashia Parmeter who carried the ball well all evening. Crowley opened the scoring 14 minutes into the game off a pass from Parmeter and provided a cross to set up Parmeter 11:31 before intermission.
Patricia Crossett and Sara Bodwell scored as Lisbon's first two shooters and SR keeper Amanda Reome helped secure the issue with her sixth save of night on the third shooter.
"I was very happy that we were able to play everything out. We lost a tough game last night and it was great the girls could walk off the field feeling good," said SR Coach Kathy Valancius.
