MATT CRESS - The News and Tribune
10/24/2008
COLUMBUS — When it comes to the postseason, experience sometimes takes a back seat to talent.
The Floyd Central girls’ soccer team saw it firsthand on Wednesday night, as Columbus North freshman forward Kayleigh Steigerwalt lit up the Highlanders for three goals and led the Bull Dogs to a 5-0 victory in the Columbus North Regional at the Richard G. Wigh Soccer Complex.
Columbus North (18-1-2) advances to the Evansville Harrison Semistate on Saturday, where it will meet Bloomington North. The Bull Dogs’ boys’ team also ended the seasons of both Providence and New Albany in the regional round.
“They were fantastic tonight,” said Floyd Central coach Lewie Stevens of the Bull Dogs. “Columbus North does all the things that we’d like to do.”
That surely included the exploits of Steigerwalt.
After a mostly-tentative first 10 minutes, North’s left-footed freshman took a pass from midfielder Leah Halcomb, beat her defender and easily beat Highlander goalkeeper Nikki Roberts by placing a kick into the left corner of the net.
The opening goal came with 31:35 on the clock, but Steigerwalt didn’t need much time to strike again. She came open on the outside edge of the goalie box and rocketed a shot that Roberts had little chance at saving. That put North up 2-0 with 19:54 left before intermission.
“We didn’t do things a lot differently from what we always do in the first half,” Stevens said. “We wanted to go in and see what they were doing and make our adjustments. But Columbus North played so well, there were definitely a couple of heads hanging at halftime.”
Still, Floyd (12-7-2) managed to mount a few threats in the early going of the second half, nearly finding the net on a free kick from Nikki Korte with 38 minutes left. That was followed with a corner kick that was soon cleared out by the Bull Dog defense.
That left it up to the North offense to close things out, and it didn’t waste any time.
Erica Alessi hit the scoreboard, emerging from a physical battle in the box for a point-blank shot at Roberts that found the net with 29:55 on the clock. Sarah Dozier quickly followed with the night’s most stylish goal, as she headed in a perfectly placed free kick off the foot of Emma Smith just three minutes later.
Steigerwalt then finished the hat trick at 21:55 with another hard shot across the goal and past Roberts, who had five saves.
Floyd entered the matchup reeling from a flu that made its rounds through the team’s ranks, along with an injury to striker April Vanderplow and the nerves of several younger players making their regional debuts. But Stevens said it was more about Columbus North, which saved one of its best games for the regional.
“We have a lot of seniors, but this is still a very young team,” Stevens said. “So there were definitely nerves, but that’s no excuse. They were just the better team tonight.”
It was the final game for Highlander seniors Vanderplow, Korte, Becky Kennedy, Mallory Sturgeon, Jackie Cusick, Kelsey Traughber and Casey Shelton, and Stevens said it will be a tough group to replace.
“As good as they have been on the field, they are great away from it,” he said. “Not having them will be very tough.”
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