Girls soccer: Prairie Ridge revenges loss to Burlington Central
Last year, Burlington Central knocked Prairie Ridge out of the postseason.
Friday, the Wolves returned the favor.
Caroline Golt broke a tie with the only goal of the second half to lead the Wolves past the Rockets, 2-1, in the final of the Class 2A Central regional.
Golt's shot from the far right side in the 51st minute appeared to hit the far goal post and carom in, capping a cold, crazy night on Rocket Hill.
After a lengthy feeling-out period, Central (15-4-1) took the lead with 8 minutes left in the first half, although no one was quite sure who was responsible for it. Following a Rockets corner kick, the ball bounced around in front of the net. It appeared to hit the inside of the post off of a Prairie Ridge player. It caromed to Issa Hartmann, who knocked it in.
Central coaches weren't sure who to credit the goal to and the Rockets' scorebook was silent on the subject. Rockets players thought it went in when it initially hit the post and thus was an own goal.
In any event, the Rockets' lead was short-lived. Fifteen seconds later, the Wolves' Madison Kachelmuss bounced one toward the net from the right side. Central keeper Kyla Butler appeared to make the stop, but the ball somehow got past her, hit the far post and caromed in.
"Getting that first goal was a little bit of a relief, and that's the best time (for an opponent) to score," said Central coach Jessica Arneson. "So they did what they were supposed to do, pretty quickly. I wish we had been able to hold it a little bit longer and gain some momentum, but we didn't quite manage it."
The second half was pretty even until Golt's goal put the Wolves ahead.
"This is my first year on varsity, and I was so proud to score that goal," she said. "I really didn't expect it, especially since we lost to them last year."
It might have come as a surprise to Golt, who pushed up from her midfield spot, but coach Mark Lewis was expecting something like that.
"That's the furthest forward she's been all season," he said of Golt. "She wanted the ball, we worked on it in practice. We felt that the key would be midfielders making runs into the boxes. They did an amazing job defensively, but we felt those runs forward from our midfielders would be successful. They were."
Butler, who left the game briefly in the first half after getting knocked down, recorded 5 saves. Samantha Gablenz had 3 saves in the net for Prairie Ridge.
The Wolves shadowed Central's Zoey Kollhoff all night. She finally put a couple of shots on the net in the second half but never got a solid chance.