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MORRIS — Entering Monday night’s match, neither the Morris or Ottawa girls soccer teams had played a game that went to penalty kicks.
Of course, that’s what happened, and Morris won the penalty kicks 4-2 to come away with a 3-2 Interstate Eight Conference win.
It wasn’t easy for Morris (10-4-1, 5-2) on its home field, as Ottawa had the wind at its back in the first half and spent a bulk of the time in the Morris end of the field. The Pirates (4-8, 2-5) opened the scoring quickly as freshman Georgia Kirkpatrick found the back of the net just 4½ minutes into the game to give her team a 1-0 lead.
Ottawa went up 2-0 with 11:20 left in the first half when Taylor Brandt scored on a direct kick from the 15-yard line.
Morris, though, didn’t let that lead stand. Kenzie Ahearn scored on a rebound off a shot by teammate Dani Martin with just 23 seconds to play in the first half to cut it to 2-1.
With 31:25 to play in the second half, Skylar Sparks scored off an assist from Martin to tie it at 2.
“We came out a little sluggish at the start,” Sparks said. “We knew we could come back and played much better in the second half. We kept the pressure on.
“That goal at the end of the first half was huge. This was kind of like our game against Coal City. We were down 2-0 and we scored late in the half to make it 2-1. I told my teammates after that goal, ‘It’s just like Coal City.’ ”
Both teams had scoring opportunities down the stretch, but both defenses were able to turn the other team away, setting up the penalty kicks to decide the victor.
Morris kicked first and Sarah Crisman scored. Ottawa followed with a goal by Brandt. Ahearn’s shot was blocked, but the attempt by Ottawa’s Chloe Carmona was too high and it remained 1-1. Morris got a goal from Nicolette Boelman before Kirkpatrick scored for Ottawa. Morris’ Dani Martin scored, and Ottawa’s Kalie Andersen missed. Morris’ Makensi Martin then scored, giving her team the win.
“We played much better in the second half,” Morris coach Steven Custer said. “We weren’t passing to feet in the first half, but we did a lot better job of doing that in the second half and made some good connections that we didn’t make in the first half.
“These girls kept battling, and that goal before halftime was big for us. We had not played in a penalty-kick game yet this year, so it was good to get that experience, too.”
Ottawa lost to Morris 1-0 earlier in the season, and was very close to avenging that loss.
“Our girls played well,” Ottawa coach Kevin Olesen said. “We knew it would be a tough, close game against Morris, and we did a good job. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to maintain the lead. This was the first shootout of the season for us, and I told the girls that if we get into the postseason and have a tie after overtime, we will have to have a shootout, so it was good to get that experience.
“Taylor Brandt is our workhorse and she keeps the defense cohesive. Georgia Kirkpatrick is a very exciting player that has a great future ahead of her. It was a great game by all of our girls and we have had a lot of games like this. Our record isn’t indicative of how competitive we have been. If we keep playing like we are, we’ll win a few close ones and get more confidence.”