Labon "Jake" Porche Jr.
February 17, 2009
Esther Marie LeBoeuf LeCompte
February 19, 2009
If there is one thing McGehee High School soccer coach St. Nick Benjamin and the rest of the Hawks know it’s that the road to Thibodaux’s Harvey Peltier Stadium doesn’t take a left turn.
Benjamin arrived nearly 40 minutes before his team did after the New Orleans school’s bus driver took a wrong turn last Wednesday on the way to the stadium.
“I expected us to start off slow because we didn’t have enough time to warm up,” the coach said. “It’s like an old car; it takes a while to get started, but when it does it can run for days.”
The lack of warm-up time showed early on, as the Hawks struggled to get anything going offensively. But once they got started, McGehee quickly put the game away.
For 76 minutes, the E.D. White Lady Cardinals held the No. 6-ranked Hawks at bay 1-0, but it was the final four minutes that made the difference.
The Hawks rebounded with a 3-1 Division III regional playoff victory in an overtime thriller.
Lady Cardinals’ head coach Don Grabert said he couldn’t have asked for a better effort from his young team. E.D. White had only one senior – sweeper Nikki Clement – this season.
“I’m so proud of these girls,” an exhausted Grabert said after the game. “They worked their tails off the entire game. It’s heartbreaking to lose like this when we knew we had a good chance.”
Early on, the Lady Cardinals took advantage of the Hawks’ traveling woes thanks to the foot of freshman Allie Falgoust.
The midfielder capitalized on a Hawks’ defensive miscue to glide the ball into the top corner of the net five minutes into the game.
Unfortunately, the lead didn’t hold quite long enough, and it was the only offense the Lady Cardinals could muster from that point on against the stout Hawk defense.
The Hawks got on the board when Hannah Tyler knocked the ball past Lady Cardinals’ goalie Andree Waguespack. Grabert said it was one of the few mistakes his goalie made all game.
“It was a youthful mistake,” the coach said. “She thought it was going past the goal and it took a weird turn and went right in. We can’t really hang our heads. It’s one of those things that happens.”
The moment the ball went into the goal, Benjamin said the momentum shifted in the Hawks’ favor.
“When we got that goal at the end of regulation, we could sense it shift,” he said. “We took advantage of that in overtime.”
Despite seeing her team outshot on goal 20-9, Waguespack held tough.
The game went into two 10-minute overtime periods, during which Tyler and teammate Amy Preston each scored goals to put the game out of reach.
Grabert predicted the No. 22-seeded Lady Cardinals will return even hungrier next season.
“I thought we did one heck of a job. We have a lot of young kids. We have some more technical stuff to learn, but we’re going to train over the summer and come back even better next year.”
“I assure you, we won’t be number 22 next year,” Grabert assured his team after the game. “We’re going to train hard all summer and come back ready.”
Westminster Academy 2
E.D. White 1 (Boys)
The No. 7-seeded E.D. White boys, like the Lady Cardinals, lost their match last Wednesday.
Jordan Chiasson’s goal in the eighth minute of play put his team up early.
Unfortunately, the Cards could not hold onto the lead.
No. 10-seeded Westminster Academy’s two goals – one from Christopher Laborde in the 37th minute and another from Joe Davis in the 65th minute – proved enough to take a 2-1 victory in boys’ Division III Regional Playoff action.
Cardinals head coach Roger Bimah said, despite having several shots from point-blank range, his team failed to convert points.
E.D. White’s Allie Falgoust tries to get the ball from McGehee’s Amy Preston. Falgoust scored an early goal for the Lady Cardinals but they were unable to hold on, dropping the Division III playoff match 3-1. * Photo by KYLE CARRIER
