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Stults also scores as No. 17 Lady Dragons advance to sectional final
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
ARGOS — Emma Dunlap scored with 3:00 left in the second overtime, and Bella Stults also scored to lead the Argos girls soccer team to a 3-1 win over Bremen in a Class 1A, Sectional 35 semifinal at Argos’ Eugene Snyder Field Thursday.
Argos’ other goal was an own-goal with 1:02 left in the second overtime that made it 3-1.
Argos, in search of their fifth straight sectional title, improved to 7-6-3. They will play LaVille in the sectional final. LaVille topped Rochester 3-1 in Thursday’s other semifinal.
Bremen finished 6-7-2. Two of their losses were to Argos, including a 6-0 loss in their regular season meeting 12 days earlier.
This game was closer, and it was a tie game at 1 after freshman Lindsey Byrd scored on a scramble after Argos goalkeeper Alydia Leed might have been screened on a drive in from the right.
Byrd’s goal answered Stults’ crash of the goal that gave Argos a lead with 37:23 left in regulation after a scoreless first half.
Leed stopped two shots in the first overtime.
Finally, it was Dunlap who gave Argos the lead, roofing a shot past Bremen goalkeeper Yajaira Jimenez, who finished with 19 saves.
“So I had a cross, and I think Samantha passed it,” Dunlap said. “I’m not sure though. And it deflected off the other girl, and I just shot it and it went in, I guess.”
“Finally, right place, right time,” Argos coach Joe Stone said of Dunlap. “Bremen came in with a gameplan, and my girls came in a little down mentally. But they still came in with a gameplan and executed it well. … They played hard. We played hard.
“They outplayed us tonight a little bit at times, and that’s really frustrating on my side. It’s something we have to work on tomorrow.”
Stults said Dunlap “saved the game for us.”
Defensively, Argos’ Lauren McGlothin, Micah Heckaman, Samantha Redinger, Baleigh Binkley and Kadyn Baughman held Bremen’s top scorer Camila Jimenez without a shot on goal.
Still, it was not easy for the Lady Dragons.
Stults also spoke of the tension of playing in a game in which her team was controlling possession and had a 22-3 advantage in shots on goal.
“It feels great, but I don’t think that we should have even been to that point,” Stults said. “We dominated the whole game. We just didn’t play soccer like we know how to. We put so much pressure on ourselves, and we were just so nerved up about it.”
Dunlap also said that her team did not play its best game and said the team struggled finishing. Part of why it was so difficult might have been Jimenez. Stults called her “amazing” and praised her sense of anticipation on Argos’ shots.
“Really, all we can do is just pass to the corners and get it to the corners,” Dunlap said. “But she was pretty good. It was hard to get around her.”
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