With the Blue Ridge Conference title on the line, the Covenant girls knew better than to assume victory at any point during the match. But after going up 3-0 early in Saturday’s championship matchup against North Cross, it appeared that the Eagles would run away with the championship. However, the next 30 minutes of the match was a shootout, with North Cross scoring a flurry of goals to get themselves back in the game.
Ultimately, Covenant was able to get back in gear and pull away to win their second-consecutive conference championship with a 10-4 victory over the Raiders.
In a game where goals came in abundance and defense was seemingly optional, it took all of two minutes for Covenant eighth grader Makayla Hargrove to score the game’s first goal on a strike from the left side which went off the North Cross goalkeeper before going in. Hargrove went on to score four goals in the match, one of three players on both teams to net at least a hat trick in the game.
“I saw our teamwork and we worked really well together,” Hargrove said after the game. “This is my first time here so it’s really exciting to be able to work with these girls.”
After a flurry of Covenant shots hit the crossbar, struck North Cross defenders, or were otherwise prevented from crossing the goal line, senior Isabella Conklin collected the ball and scored the first of her three goals to put the Eagles up 2-0. A few minutes later, another Conklin shot went off the crossbar and Hargrove headed in the rebound to make it 3-0.
Conklin and Hargrove combined for seven goals and three assists.
“You have a senior (Conklin) there and an eighth grader (Hargrove) there and they are learning to play well together,” said Covenant head coach Bryan Verbrugge. “We’ve been stressing that all season — we succeed if the offense attacks together.”
With Conklin and Hargrove firing on all cylinders and North Cross not managing much on the offensive end, it appeared that Covenant was well on its way to cruising to the victory.
Late in the first half, however, the entire complexion of the game changed as Adoria Sanders went through three separate Covenant defenders before delivering a strike into the back corner of the net to put North Cross on the board.
Sanders scored again at the beginning of the second half to draw North Cross to within a goal. Suddenly, the Raiders had all the momentum.
Reeling from giving up two consecutive goals to Adoria Sanders, the Eagles turned to their seniors to right the ship. Less than a minute after Sanders made it 3-2, AJ Hudock made a run up the left side and crossed to Isabella Conklin who punched it in for her second goal of the day.
The extended lead for Covenant did not last for long. A few minutes later, North Cross drew a Covenant foul inside the box and was awarded a penalty kick, which Adoria Sanders converted to complete her hat trick and bring North Cross back to within a goal.
Once again, Covenant took less than a minute to double their lead with Hudock scoring the first of her two goals.
“It feels really good because we worked together as a team on this,” said Hudock. “We’ve been trying to pick up our energy in practice and we really did that today in this game.”
North Cross refused quit, scoring again on a goal by Isabel Bradley to make it 5-4. This time, there was no immediate response by Covenant and the Raiders nearly tied the game on another Sanders shot that Tegan Murrie saved to maintain the Eagles’ lead.
A few minutes later, Conklin crossed to Hudock who scored her second goal to make it 6-4. The Eagles also made a defensive adjustment, with senior and All-Tournament defender Stella Maton primarily covering Adoria Sanders to limit her opportunities. North Cross didn’t score again for the rest of the match.
“I’m really proud of the way we played,” Verbrugge said. “I was really proud of our resiliency today.”
The rest of the match was the Makayla Hargrove show. On two separate runs on the left side, Hargrove crossed to Conklin who scored to complete her hat trick and then Hargrove crossed to Sinclaire Hart who scored to make it 8-4. Hargrove then scored twice herself, finishing with four goals and two assists.
Covenant now awaits their seeding for the state tournament which begins next week.
