Bears in the playoff hunt
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First-half possession did not translate into goals for the Valley Heights Bears girls soccer team in a 3-1 NSSAA loss Thursday afternoon.
“We had it in their end 30 of the first 35 minutes,” said VHSS coach Andy Blackwood after Simcoe scored on a long, high shot late in the first half to take a 2-0 lead.
“In the first half, we were probably at least 75 per cent of the time in their half,” said Bears’ Shanaya Armstrong, pleased with the amount of sustained pressure they were able to apply. “This is probably one of the best games we’ve played in the past couple of years.
“SCS, their first two goals were really nice goals,” she admitted. “Their third one wasn’t too good – we just have to practice those (corners). Usually they don’t go in, so it was kind of a fluke-type thing.”
The Bears broke the Sabres’ shutout with three minutes left to play in the second half when Nancy Harder drilled a low shot into the right corner of Simcoe’s net.
“It was beautiful on Shandi’s (Pace) part, she assisted on it. It went to Shandi, kind of past me to Nancy and she kicked it right in. We’ve been working on that in practice, the give-and-go. That’s something we really have to work on though – that’s when we’ll start scoring when we do our give-and-goes.”
Offensively, the Bears had numerous corner kicks of their own – and some great chances – but they were not converted.
“Sara (Reimer) has some beautiful corner kicks,” nodded Armstrong, the backup corner-taker when Reimer’s on the sidelines.
Thursday’s second half was more evenly played – Valley Heights had opportunities, but fewer chances.
“I saw a lot of fatigue,” said Armstrong. “I wouldn’t say the score got us down at all, but there was a lot of fatigue on our faces.
“Defensively, we have to work on ‘looking up’ before we kick the ball. A lot of people have their heads down and they’re not looking, they’re just worried about getting the ball out. We want to get it to the outside, but we don’t always want to kick it out. It is hard, but you have to pay attention to your surroundings.”
April Harriott, Maddie Heggie and Autumn Ongaro scored for Simcoe Thursday.
Valley Heights’ season continues this week with a Wednesday makeup game in Simcoe, and a home game Thursday against Waterford – a rematch after the Bears’ first win of the season on April 23.
“A 4-0 win against Waterford,” said Armstrong, who scored on a top-shelf penalty shot off the crossbar in the final minutes. “That’s the team we have to beat for NSSAA (playoffs) for sure. We had really nice goals there.
“I definitely believe we can beat Simcoe,” Armstrong summed up. “And I feel we can beat Waterford, too. We just have to keep playing hard, working hard, because we can never give up.”