The most
amazing ride...finally ends
No team in Cherokee County has EVER advanced
to the Final Four...until NOW
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Pride
in Defeat
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By William Bretherton
Tribune Sports Correspondent
ATLANTA - Entering the postseason as a No. 3 seed, odds were stacked
against Creekview's girls soccer team from the start.
But in their first three playoff games, the Lady Grizzlies beat
those odds - twice beating higher-seeded foes - to earn a spot
in Class AAA's final four.
Then came St. Pius X.
Creekview was simply outmatched, suffering a 6-0 setback to St.
Pius, which entered the game not only as the state's No. 1 team,
but as the nation's top-ranked program in the National Soccer
Coaches Association of America's rankings.
In the longest postseason run in the program's short history,
the Lady Grizzlies (12-4-2) became the first girls soccer team
in Cherokee County history to reach the state's semifinals.
"I'm so proud of our girls," Creekview coach Kerri Schmitt
said. "I told them that, no matter what happens, I want to
be on that bench because of how much heart the team has."
From the onset of Tuesday's game, St. Pius (21-0) controlled possession
of the ball and used crisp, one-touch passing to drive the ball
downfield and continually put pressure on Creekview's defense.
Combined with St. Pius' apparent speed advantage over Creekview,
the Lady Grizzlies had a difficult time defending their own net.
"The game was a whole lot faster than we were used to,"
Schmitt said. "We need to play teams like this to get ready
for games like this next season."
St. Pius was kept off the scoreboard through the first 18 minutes
of the first half. But the Lady Golden Lions scored twice in the
next 14 minutes on shots from outside the box.
In the 18th minute, Carly Lafferty drove in an indefensible line
drive into the top-left corner. Then, in the 32nd minute of the
match, Alexa Newfield struck the ball from outside the box over
goalkeeper Jessica Estes' head into the top-right section of the
net.
Estes was able to stop several point-blank shots in the first
half, and even received help from the post on two occasions, but
St. Pius' offensive attack was more than Creekview could handle.
In the second half, St. Pius scored four more times. Lafferty
and Newfield each scored their second goals, while Veronica Romero
and Lindsay Znosko each netted a goal as well.
While St. Pius dominated the action much of the night, Creekview
did have opportunities to put the ball in the back of the net.
In the 58th minute, the Lady Grizzlies had their best scoring
chance when Elizabeth Kinsel was able to get free on a lob over
the top of the defense.
But St. Pius goalkeeper Emily Cox came out of the net cut off
Kinsel's angle at the net and deflect her shot out of the box.
"What more can you ask for?" said St. Pius coach Sara
Geiger, whose team will play North Hall, one of Creekview's Area
7AAA rivals, for the championship Friday. "Our goal all along
was to get back to state. We lost on penalty kicks there last
year, and we wanted to get back there to get another shot."
As the St. Pius juggernaut moves on, Creekview has plenty to look
forward to in the near future, as Eli Arthur is the lone graduating
senior. Arthur will be playing collegiately at Jacksonville State
as her teammates take another aim at a state championship.
"Eli is the one that pumps us up," Schmitt said. "We
always ask for her words of wisdom at halftime. She's very much
the motivational tool that we are going to miss next season."
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Creekview
faces long odds against St. Pius X
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5/3/09
By Adam Carrington (.pdf
version of article)
acarrington@cherokeetribune.com
All the knowledge Creekview girls soccer coach Kerri Schmitt
has on semifinal-round opponent St. Pius X is by word of mouth.
Here are the facts.
In Tuesday's Class AAA state semfinial in Atlanta, the Lady Grizzlies
will go up against a St. Pius team which is ranked No. 1 with
an unblemished 20-0 record and a 131-6 goal differential.
Creekview had to work a little harder for its 12-3-2 record and
its first semifinal appearance in school history, but the Lady
Grizzlies have survived by making adjustments. They had to make
alterations in their 4-3 win over Richmond Hill on Friday after
beginning the game with an own goal, and they expect to make more
adjustments when they face the Lady Golden Lions.
"I haven't seen them play. I just hear about them from other
people," Schmitt said. "That makes it difficult, because
you don't know how far you're going to make it. We seemed to make
adjustments (against Richmond Hill), but (St. Pius) is, obviously,
good. If we do what we need to do, we'll be all right."
Schmitt said the Lady Grizzlies excelled at winning balls against
Richmond Hill and she and her players plan to carry that same
mind-set against St. Pius. Creekview also controlled the ball
on the ground, which helped it score three unanswered to begin
the second half and break the game open.
Whitley Dover had two of those second-half goals, and Cori Dulmage
scored the first second-half goal, to put Creekview in front for
good.
But Schmitt did admit some minor flaws that will be addressed
at Monday's practice.
"We're going to concentrate more on the defensive side of
the ball Monday at practice," Schmitt said. "We're going
to work on that a little bit. I know St. Pius is great, and it
will take us defending very well to have success. We can do it.
The girls can defend well."
While a defensive mishap led to the own goal against Richmond
Hill, Jordan Arthur quickly tied the score for Creekview and the
Lady Grizzlies' defense clamped down afterwards, not yielding
a score until late in the second half.
Richmond Hill scored two goals in the final 15 minutes of the
game - one on a penalty kick - to close the gap, but Creekview's
backfield rose to the occasion again by not allowing the tying
goal.
"They played with so much heart on Friday," Schmitt
said of her players. "When we had the own goal scored, they
pumped the player up and went back down and scored.
"They were very pumped and excited (to win) and know we
have a large feat ahead of us."
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