Winters Mill junior midfielder Kolby Brown had the ball at her feet when she looked up and saw teammate Anna Diffendal making a cut from the right side of the field to the center.
Brown sent the ball through to Diffendal, who carried it through and found the back of the net for the game-winning goal, sending the Falcons crowd into a frenzy. It was the second of two overtime periods in a county matchup between Westminster and Winters Mill and the Falcons prevailed over the Owls, 2-1.
"Kolby sent a great ball over," Diffendal said. "It built up from the defense, but Kolby sent that cross in and it was just a good build-up."
The Falcons (7-1, 4-0 county) garnered a flurry of scoring opportunities in the first half but most were either shot too wide or stopped by Owls goalie Kristen Janeczek.
Janeczek, who made 11 saves in the contest, made an impressive save with 5 minutes, 47 seconds remaining in the first half when she booted Falcons junior forward Shelby Reppe's shot away from the net with inches to spare.
Diffendal got the Falcons on the board first off a connection from junior midfielder Kyla Holt with 27:40 left in regulation and she praised her entire unit for working so well together.
Westminster's Ava Boussy wasn't going to go down without a fight. The junior forward received a pass and immediately sprinted up the right sideline, beating out a Winters Mill midfielder and sending the ball straight to the back of the net to tie the score 1-1.
"We just tried to keep the momentum going at that point and not let up," Brown said.
Diffendal had a close scoring chance when she aimed a low shot at the net in the first overtime period, but the ball rolled just outside of the goal. The reigning Times Player of the Year tossed her hands up in frustration, as did the Falcons bench.
The game-winning connection between Brown and Diffendal came with 6:27 left in the second overtime. The teams would have finished in a tie if a goal had not been scored in either period.
"We had to work together as a team," said Diffendal, whose game-winner dropped the Owls to 4-3-1, 2-2. "I know there could have been comments said to each other but we just had to look up and look to the future to try and score another goal."
Overtime is hardly expected in a game, but Winters Mill coach Denny Snyder assures his girls are prepared regardless.
“When the girls play 80 minutes of soccer, having played the game before, when it goes into overtime, you get that extra adrenaline rush,” Snyder said. “We came out and had some early opportunities in the first overtime period and I thought the adrenaline was there. For Kolby to make that pass through to Anna, I felt our legs were where they needed to be.”
The Falcons celebrated their Kick For A Cure game in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month on Thursday. Fans donned pink shirts and the team wore pink practice jerseys as pink and black decorated posters donned the fence line.
"We really try to save for the next game," Snyder said. "This season is a marathon, not a sprint and the goal is, as the regular season goes, you play a great game like that and it prepares you for the playoffs. Obviously we go over scout reports with tendencies of girls on other teams but we prepare for each team during practice. The girls have to go out and execute and tonight, we jumped out early.
"That was a great goal by Anna, Kristen made some great saves to sent it into overtime and Ava had a great finish with a great shot. It was a great high school match."
Goals: W-Ava Boussy; WM-Anna Diffendal 2.
Assists: W-none; WM-Kyla Holt, Kolby Brown.
Saves:W-11 (Kristen Janeczek); WM-9.
Halftime: Tied, 0-0.
JV result: Westminster, 4-0.
mwoodward@carrollcountytimes.com
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twitter.com/mwoodwardCCT
