After a rocky start to the season, the Frederick girls soccer team got a much needed victory over the Greeley West Spartans, winning the game 5-1.
The day started out with snow showers on and off with rain in between. The weather led to many sporting events having their events cancelled such as baseball, or their practices moved inside like girls tennis. Nonetheless, the school gave the okay for girls soccer to proceed with their games as planned.
JV played first, losing 3-1 with Johanne Davis, a sophomore, scoring on a breakaway in the first half. While the team performed well, their lack of players and subs proved difficult against the Spartans.
By the start of the Varsity game, the rain had come back, continuing to soak the turf. The game started rough for the Golden Eagles and a few mistakes in the defense led to a goal in the third minute for the Greeley West Spartans.
But the team didn’t let it hold them back. They prevented the Spartans from having any more successful scoring opportunities and they went on to score five goals of their own.
The first goal was scored in the sixth minute by Ariyah Sloan, a sophomore who recently transferred from Legacy High School. This was Ariyah’s first varsity goal of the season and was necessary to bring the team back into winning contention.
At halftime, the Golden Eagles Broadcast Network’s (GEBN) Tyler Hughett interviewed head coach Simone Mortenson.
When Tyler asked Simone about her thoughts on the first half and hopes for the second half she said, “I thought it was a little up and down, we had a bit of a slow start and we got back into the game. A very good goal by Ariyah, and so I think we just need to compose ourselves and kind of build a little bit more. Instead of of just kicking the ball, we need to connect passes a little bit more and go forward as a team.”
At the start of the second half, the game was tied and Frederick had high hopes of advancing their lead.
Then, in the forty-second minute of the game, freshman Brooklyn Rickman did just that. After taking advantage of a bad touch by one of the Spartan defenders, Brooklyn was easily able to tap the ball into the bottom left corner of the net, bringing the score to 2-1.
After that, the Frederick Golden Eagles couldn’t be stopped.
In the forty-nineth minute, the Spartan goalkeeper took a goal kick, sending the ball into the middle of the field where Frederick defensive player Khaliyah Phifer one touched it to Brooklyn who booted into the air. For a few moments, no one knew where the ball was, not even the Spartan goalkeeper.
When the ball finally came back to the ground, it was in the back of the net, bringing the score to 3-1 for Frederick.
At the end of the game Brooklyn was interviewed by GEBN when she said, “I feel very happy and I’m very proud of the team for sticking with it. I think that the first half we started off really slow, but I think after we had our halftime talk, we were able to get back in it and we played really good.”
Frederick maintained possession for a majority of the second half, allowing goalkeeper Avery Briggs to take controlled passes from her defense to shift the ball.
In the middle of the second half, Frederick got their fourth goal of the night scored by sophomore Addy Schaeffer in her second game back after her concussion.
On yet another breakaway, Brooklyn dribbled towards the goal before the Spartan goalkeeper slid into her, knocking the ball away. However, due to the rain, she wasn’t able to maintain possession and sophomore Kate Hohs capitalized on it, scoring the fifth and final goal of the evening.
Kate said that “scoring the last goal was so amazing! I hadn’t scored a goal all season and when I finally scored I couldn’t stop smiling and I was happy for the remainder of the game.”
This game marked the halfway point in the girls soccer season, leaving only seven games left.
In her interview with Tyler from GEBN, head coach Simone said that for the latter half of the season, “we’re just trying to keep people healthy. We’ve been hit hard with quite a lot of injuries so we’re just trying to maintain and get those players back and try to finish out strong.”
