For the first 60 minutes of play it looked as though both teams were afraid to push the envelope on offense. Both Orange County and host Monticello had a handful of scoring opportunities, but for the most part the two teams battled in the middle of the field and on the sidelines.
“Everytime we come to Monticello it seems like’s inevitable,” said Hornets coach Tricia Grabeel. “It always goes into overtime and you’re dead tired to begin with.”
But five minutes into overtime, Hornets senior Lauren Seal worked her way to the front of the cage and scored the first and only goal of the game to lift Orange past Monticello, 1-0.
“I heard a lot people saying ‘Hack her! Hack her!’ and I knew if (Monticello) did that we’d get a short corner,” Seal said of the game winning play. “But I said well I’ll just try a spin move and try to get around everyone and put it in. I was very relieved to get this game over with.”
Early in the game, Orange had its chances. The Hornets put the ball in front of the net and their sticks were busy but to no avail. Scoring goals against the Mustangs hasn’t been an easy task for anyone this year, but Grabeel thought her team had some promising chances.
“We felt like we should capitalized early,” Grabeel said. “But I’m not going to take anything away from Monticello’s defense. They played great, but we’ve got to be able to finish and we can’t wait until overtime to do it.”
After an early wave of Orange attacks, momentum then shifted Monticello’s way, and while they too got a couple great looks at the goal, much like the Hornets, the Mustangs couldn’t stuff the ball in.
“We’ve got to find a way to finish,” said Monticello coach Katie Owens. “We have a midfield that tends to generate some good offense. We’ve got to find a way to put the ball in. We just have to get in good position and get scrappy.”
Both team played sound defense, particularly in the second half. There weren’t any significant breakaways until Orange broke loose in the first few minutes of overtime.
Coming into the match, both plenty was at stake as both teams try and position themselves for top seeding for the Jefferson District tournament next month. As it stands now, Western is on top of Orange by one game.
The Hornets will have an opportunity to earn a tie for first place when they host Western on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. Monticello, who now sits third and trails Western by two games, will get a chance to rebound against Louisa County on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
