Asher Smith was about 25 yards away from the goal when she received the pass. From such a long distance away from the target, most players would have looked for a teammate or a passing outlet. Not Smith. She lined up a shot, and then fired a low volley to the bottom left corner of the net. The rocket blasted past all 11 defenders and nestled itself snuggly in the net behind the woodwork.
The Soddy Daisy Trojans were crowned district champs over Cookeville with plays such as that. The Trojans began their 2-1 victory slowly, rarely possessing the ball in the first 15 minutes of action. Cookeville’s fleet-of-foot striker Avery Brown dominated the pitch, blowing past multiple defenders on searing runs down the sideline.
Five minutes into the match, Brown took the pass from midfielder Audrey Birdwell, and went to work on the Soddy Daisy defense. She nimbly wove through the Trojan back line, eventually eluding all who tried to stop her, supplying Cookeville’s only goal of the match. While Brown was unable to find the net again, she made epic forays such as this throughout the match.
Following the first 20 minutes, Soddy Daisy broke the chokehold Cookeville held on the match, and began to possess the ball with regularity. Although the Trojans spent the first half hour of the match scoreless, they continually sent threatening long-balls at Cookeville’s defensive back-three, hoping the visitors would break eventually. And break they did.
On one of Soddy Daisy’s direct attacks in the 34th minute, Amy Rasmussen blew past Cookeville as the pass made its way to her steady feet. All that stood between number seven and a tie game was the goalkeeper. So Rasmussen put on a sparkling right-leaning juke move to fake out the final line of defense, and slotted home the easy goal to tie the match.
Until Asher Smith’s incredible long-range blast in the 53rd minute, each team traded scoring attempts that fell just short. In the 43rd minute, Birdwell pulled off a nifty spin around her defender and gave herself enough space to get off a shot. Unfortunately for Cookeville, her shot sailed high and Soddy Daisy remained unscathed.
The final twenty minutes were as tense as one would expect a championship matchup to be. At one point, play was stopped and the crowd was told to settle down, as it appeared some fans had said rather unsavory things to either a player or a referee. Soddy Daisy dominated the stat sheet in most categories, especially in corner kicks. While Cookeville accrued only a single corner, Soddy Daisy set up shop in the corner seven times in the match.
Stats:
Cookeville Soddy Daisy
Shots 7 10
Shots on Target 4 7
Fouls 6 12
Corner Kicks 1 7
Yellow Cards 1 3