Fruitland girls hold off McCall in district championship match
By Larry Hurrle
Argus Observer
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 12:50 PM PDT
WEISER — Despite inclement weather conditions, Tuesday’s rain did not dampen Fruitland’s enthusiasm in the championship match of the Idaho 3A District III girls soccer tournament.
As the rain subsided, though, so did McCall’s chances for a shocking upset of the defending Idaho 3A state champion Grizzlies as Fruitland won the contest, 3-2, and earned a berth in next week Idaho 3A girls soccer tournament.
“This is huge,” Fruitland head coach Frank Teunissen said. “We had to win this or we would be playing Thursday and, if we won that, a play-in game Saturday.”
Fruitland’s Tess Thompson took matters into her own hands Tuesday. The Fruitland senior scored her team’s final two goals of the match and had an assist on the Grizzlies’ first goal, scored by Stephanie Rule.
“Tess had a good game for us,” Teunissen said. “She had two goals and an assist. It was hard to play out there.”
Fruitland averted a near disaster in the opening two minutes of the match. McCall moved the ball toward the goal, and goal keeper Lindsey Jones moved out to intercept the ball. The ball got past Jones, however, and two Fruitland defenders hustled to keep the ball out of the net. The ball caromed off one Fruitland player, though, and back toward the goal, bouncing off the post.
Just a minute later, McCall’s Cassidy Brown found the center of the net when the ball again bounded off the post, giving Brown a clean shot past Jones.
Rule tied the game in the 13th minute when she took Thompson’s assist and pounded it into the left side of the net.
On the ensuing play, Fruitland again found the net when Thompson chipped a lob over the top of keeper Jace Bowling in the 14th minute of play for a 2-1 Fruitland lead.
McCall rallied in the 29th minute when Brown again found the net on a break-away, one-on-one play against Jones for a 2-2 halftime tie.
Thompson returned to action in the fifth minute of the second half with a Jones assist that bounced through Bowling’s grasp an Thompson was waiting in the right spot for a clear shot making the score 3-2.
“I thought we would need at least two more (goals),” Teunissen said. “McCall is the good team, and they can score quick. They are kind of the surprise of our league.”
After that, the Grizzly defense took over, allowing only one shot on goal the rest of the way.
“We brought Stephanie Rule from the front to the back,” Teunissen said. “That kind of stiffened things up for us.”
With the win, Fruitland advances to the Idaho 3A state tournament next Thursday at Vallivue High School in Caldwell. The Grizzlies will face the District 4 runner-up at 2 p.m.
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