The Fort Mill Yellow Jackets girls’ soccer team outlasted the Clover Blue Eagles winning 4-3 on penalty kicks.
Tied at two, heading into penalty kicks Fort Mill got goals from Abby Schueren, Nora Manucy, Emerson Shelton, and the match winner from Mallory Kendall.
The match was tied at 2-2 entering penalty kicks, but Fort Mill head coach Ralph Latchana told his team to forget about the previous 90 minutes of play.
“Clover is always a tough team to play against,” Latchana said. “We survived and played well in moments. At times, you have to put it in the players hands.”
Fort Mill improved to 9-4 on the season overall but are now tied a half game behind Clover at 6-2 atop the Region 3-5A standings. Clover is now 7-2 in the region.
As expected, the start of the game was both teams battling for possession and supremacy, and looking to gain control, however, it turned out to be more of a 50-50 battle.
Clover controlled possession more through the first 10 minutes of the game and got some good looks on goal without being able to take a shot.
Fort Mill struggled to cross midfield and when they did were unable to maintain possession in the early going. The Jackets were able to get their first shot on goal about 14 minutes into play, but they didn’t catch the Clover keeper off guard.
Several minutes later, Fort Mill finally cracked the box of a corner kick as they started controlling possession more as time went on. The Jackets’ Quinn Little scored off a rebound on the corner putting Fort Mill ahead in the 17th minute.
In the ensuing minutes, Fort Mill won two free kicks, but failed to score on both attempts.
Clover got a corner kick about midway through the first half and had another scoring opportunity with about nine minutes left in the first half but Fort Mill stayed on the attack for most of the half.
In the 36th minute, Clover got an equalizer off a corner to tie the game at one. That’s the score the teams took to the locker room at the half.
The second half started much like the first with both teams trying to find an advantage. Clover got the advantage to some extent winning more second chance balls.
Fort Mill got a good shot off about five minutes into the second half, but the Clover keeper was able to get hands on it and deflect it.
The Blue Eagles controlled possession more in the second half through the first 20 minutes. Despite this, Fort Mill had a corner kick and some good looks at the goal.
The Jackets started to control possession more with about 17 minutes left in regulation, but still were unable to break through the Clover defense.
Fort Mill’s defense was just as strong, if not more so, as much as the Blue Eagles were able to control possession. Frustration started to build a little bit for Fort Mill with about 12 minutes left in regulation as they got a yellow card.
Defense was key for both in the second half sending the match into extra time. In the first five minutes, Clover got off one shot on goal, but was high with it hitting off the crossbar.
Both teams pulled off somewhat of an unheard of feat in the second five-minute extra time period, as Fort Mill’s Schueren and a Clover player both scored with less than two minutes left in extra time sending it to penalty kicks tied at two.
Up next for Fort Mill are road matches at Rock Hill on April 17 and then Northwestern April 21, before returning home against Indian Land and Nation Ford to finish out the regular season.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
