The lady Bruins met the Henley Lady Hornets Saturday afternoon in a ‘Play-in’ Playoff situation. The community showed up with a large crowd to help them continue their season and get them into the next round.
The teams were quite evenly matched in skill sets, but it seemed that the Lady Hornets showed up with a higher level of urgency and emotion, and used it to their advantage with much more aggressive play.
The Lady Hornets clearly did their homework and deployed the exact same game plan the North Bend Lady Bulldogs used to beat the Lady Bruins twice earlier in league play.
Never being one to blame officials for wins and losses, it is a fact that officials in any sport can dictate tempo and aggressiveness as well as other important factors in the game. For this reason, the officials played a big part in this game allowing very aggressive fouls to go uncalled and taking many moments that slowed the Lady Bruins in situations where their situational advantage was to make quick throw-ins or quick free kicks.
However, it is the Lady Bruins who needed to adjust to a Lady Hornet game plan allowed by officials, and that adjustment just never came.
Just seven minutes into the game, Lady Hornets junior forward Sydnee Howard #6 would take advantage of a loose ball just outside the penalty box and drive a shot that would slip through freshman keeper Annie Nations save and painfully roll over the goal line.
From that point on the Lady Hornets played the exact same soft offside trap defense that North Bend used earlier in the season, holding a trap at the half field line and then dropping into a sweeper giving a ten yard offside cushion that the Lady Bruins failed to recognize, adjust to, and expose throughout the game. The Lady Hornets simply were not going to be beat by a Pettus fast break, and the Lady Bruins either failed to recognize it or did not know how to expose and use it to their advantage.
This tactic stretched the defense and forward line, leaving the middle of the field open to challenge any ball in the midfield and consequently the Lady Bruins struggled to keep possession as they were routinely beat to the ball, forcing them to spend most of their energy chasing loose balls. The Lady Hornets would not allow clean easy passes and the Lady Bruins struggled to get the ball accurately and effectively from the defense to the midfielders and from the midfielders to the forwards.
Annie Nation, the Lady Bruin keeper would be the standout on the afternoon recording double-digit saves keeping Brookings-Harbor in the game. Brookings-Harbor kept Henley off the board for 73 minutes with brave play, but Henley had more shots on goal and executed a disciplined game plan taking the Lady Bruins final game of the season 1-0.
The Lady Bruins have much to be proud of as an 8-3 season is not an easy task. The Lady Bruins put together some great play and worked through some tough situations as a team throughout the season.
Congratulations on a great season.
