A crowning affair
Payette defeats defending champion Fruitland in sudden death shootout
By Scott Ford
Argus Observer
scottf@argusobserver.com
Saturday, October 24, 2009 11:01 PM PDT
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| Scott Ford | Argus Observer
Payette’s Jordan Rodriguez (4) just avoids Fruitland’s Courtney Smith (9) during the girls 3A state soccer championship Saturday at Vallivue High School in Caldwell. Payette won the title in an thrilling sudden death shootout, 4-3. |
Caldwell—The day the Payette Pirate girls soccer team has been waiting for finally arrived. The day they are crowned champs. The day they knocked off the defending state champions, the Fruitland Lady Grizzlies 4-3 in a overtime sudden death shoot-out.
“This was the best game I have ever been in,” Payette’s Emily Jeager said. “The whole team played well and all that hard work has finally paid off.”
It was not an easy task by any means and the Fruitland Lady Grizzlies — the defending 3A state champs — were not going to go down with out a fight.
And fight they did, through the regulation, through a sudden death overtime period and through the first penalty kick overtime — where each team tickled the net for three goals, and the contest remained deadlocked 3-3.
The lone senior on the team, Leslie LaMue said the championship win was the greatest day of her life.
“This is something I have always dreamed of and now it came true,” LaMue said.
Then in the sudden death penalty kick overtime, Fruitland kicked first and the Payette goalie Brandy Blackburn knocked the attempt away. Next up, Payette’s Esmerelda Gonzalez and she delivered with a shot of a life time, the game winning goal.
“This was a huge win for the Payette soccer program,” Payette’s Blackburn said. “It is unbelievable.”
Fruitland’s Stephanie Rule broke the ice with the games first goal for an early 1-0 advantage, but the lead did not last long as Payette’s Jordan Rodriguez tied the championship battle at one goal apiece and that score stood for the remainder of the fist half.
In the second half, the Lady Grizzlies retook the lead on a penalty kick off the foot of Ashley Finch and stole the momentum of the game, for a while anyway.
Late in the second half, Payette’s Hailey Gross was awarded a free kick just outside the goalie box and her kick sailed just over the outstretched arms of the Fruitland keeper to tie the game and force the extra sessions.
“This team is always prepared to go to battle,” Payette head coach Gordon Peterson said. “These girls have been to the tournament for the past three years and they have worked really hard for this championship,”
For Fruitland the loss was extremely upsetting as this team has competed the last three state championship games and have only come away with one title.
“This game went down like I thought it was going to. We played even in the regulation and overtime, they just beat us in the penalty kicks,” Fruitland head coach Frank Teunissen said. “You have to give Payette a lot of credit, they played a great game.”
FHS wrote on Nov 12, 2009 5:53 PM: