By Mark Carpenter
Soccer can certainly be a frustrating sport, some days the balls bounce your ways and some days they don’t. For Coach Morgan Hendrickson and her North Adams lady Devils, the ball had bounced their way through two tournament games, taking them to the Division III district title game on Saturday, Oct. 31 at Waverly.
Unfortunately for the North Adams girls, awaiting them in that district final match up were the gold ball champions of the Southern Hills Athletic Conference, the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs. The two teams had met very early in the season with Lynchburg winning 2-0, so another close game was expected on Saturday and anyone who paid full price for a seat should have gotten a partial refund because they never used the whole seat, they spent the afternoon sitting on the edge of their seats. In a game that took nearly 117 minutes of soccer to decide an outcome, it was the Lady Devils suffering another heartbreaking postseason loss as the Lady Mustangs got a goal from freshman Jade Massey at he 8:26 mark of the second overtime to give her team a 2-1 win and a district championship.
“Even though we came up short, I couldn’t be more proud of my girls,” said Coach Hendrickson after the heartbreaking loss. “Our girls came to battle until the very end. We were the underdogs when we got to Waverly, a 4 seed facing a 1 seed, but we didn’t play like underdogs. I told the girls three things all week long- they had to be patient and take care of the ball, they had to take advantage of every opportunity they were given, and they had to be ‘all in’, giving everything they had whether they were on the field or on the sideline.”
“I’m honestly amazed at the way that this group played. Not one girl had anything left in them when it was over. We did absolutely everything we needed to do and if you look at the scorebook and the film, we were the team that possessed the ball and took more shots, just more of theirs went in.”
The Lady Devils were the team that got on the board first on Saturday. At the 22:!7 mark of the first half, a perfect corner kick by senior Braylie Jones was headed into the goal by Hunter Grooms for a 1-0 advantage. eight minutes later, the Lady Mustangs had erased that deficit when a goal by sophomore Karlie Tipton tied the game at the half.
North Adams had dominated possession most of the first half, but the Lady Mustangs came out after the intermission with a renewed vigor and the pace of the contest picked up considerably, though neither side could find the back of the net. The Lady Devils got a free kick from Kenlie Jones with just 2:50 left in regulation, but it bounced off the top crossbar and moments later an attack on the goal by Karissa Buttelwerth was stymied by the onrushing Lynchburg goalie and the rebound shot by Braylie Jones went wide, thus regulation ended in a 1-1 tie.
In the first 15-minute overtime period, the Lady Devils had a number of scoring opportunities but none found the net and after one OT period, the score remained tied, the tension built, and the second overtime period began. Less than seven minutes into that second extra period, the North Adams season came to an abrupt end.
With 8:26 left, a rebound in front of the Lynchburg goal eventually found its way to the foot of Lady Mustangs’ freshman Jade Massey and Massey was able to get a shot past North Adams keeper Harlee Brand to set off a jubilant celebration on the Lynchburg side of the field as the Massey goal had sent her team to the Division III regional tournament.
“This season was one for the books,” said Coach Hendrickson. “Not because of our record or achievements but because of the adversity and challenges that this group overcame. Unsure if we would even have a season and then being cleared to play three days before our first game was a huge deal. Our girls overcame so many injuries, they seemed to run through our team like water this season, but each player stepped up to support the injured and to adjust to how their team needed them. We finished 12-7, but more important than the record was how our girls overcame challenges and took leadership.”
“The coolest part of this season was that I usually had four freshmen in the starting lineup and that says a whole lot about what the future holds for us”
As is the case with most season-ending defeats at whatever level, one of the toughest scenarios is saying goodbye to seniors and the 2020 Lady Devils will lose a solid group that includes Alyssa Mays, Karissa Buttelwerth, Maleia Eldridge, Braylie Jones, and Brianna Robinson.
“This senior group has a special place in my heart,” says Coach Hendrickson. “They are a group that have been in this program most of their years. Maleia has always had such a positive attitude on and off the field, while Brianna Robinson, or ‘Robbie’ as we call her, always plays hard and gives the game all that she’s got, and she is a natural leader on the field. Alyssa stepped up big time her final two seasons with a constant positive attitude. always giving her absolute best, things that will follow her the rest of her life.”
“Braylie has been the anchor , a completely selfless player who broke our record for career assists and is one of the hardest working players I have ever coached. Finally, Karissa is one of those players that comes through your program once in a great while and although 2020 was not kind to her, she made the best of it. She was injured most of the season but was at every practice, every game, cheering her teammates on. She wasn’t supposed to be able to play the rest of the season but she didn’t accept that and made it back, our leading scorer the last two seasons.”
”Losing seniors is always the hardest part. They have invested their time and energy to this team for four years and I have no doubt that they will be anything but successful in life. I loved watching them and I will miss them dearly.”
