Vandebilt senior leads the way to a 5-0 victory with two goals

Vandebilt Catholic fans celebrated like it was Mardi Gras on Friday night.

The top-seeded Lady Terriers claimed their second consecutive Division II state girls soccer championship with a 5-0 victory over Teurlings Catholic at Buddy Marcello Stadium.

Vandebilt senior forward Cayla Chatman led the way with two goals. Senior midfielders Lindsey Warren and Kandace Alexander and freshman midfielder Meghan Philip scored one goal each.

“They came out and played with a lot of adrenaline,” said Vandebilt head coach Philip Amedee. “It’s pretty typical in the first 15, 20 minutes of a playoff game to have a lot of adrenaline pumping. We just settled down into our game, and once we did that, we started to make things happen.”

Teurlings kept the ball on Vandebilt’s side of the field most of the game, particularly in the first half.

However, the Lady Terriers out- shot the third-seeded Lady Rebels 15 to 4 in the first half and held a 3-0 lead at intermission.

“We’re just used to possessing the ball. We’re not used to playing as physical as the game got,” said Teurlings head coach Rachel Schwartz. “It wasn’t a dirty game. They just came out with more intensity and desire, and we didn’t match that. We controlled the ball, but we just couldn’t develop anything on the offensive side.”

Vandebilt’s first goal came in the 18th minute on a miscue by Teurlings goalkeeper Adrianna Bailey.

Bailey moved from the middle of the net toward the post. When Warren stole the ball from a Teurlings defender, she shot the ball past Bailey into an open net for the 1-0 lead.

“I didn’t know what was going on,” Warren said. “She started running away from the goal. I saw her over and just shot it. It’s amazing that it went in. It surprised me. I was just so excited.”

Alexander posted Vandebilt’s second goal in the 29th minute. She outran one Teurlings defender and outmuscled another to get the shot off and pass Bailey.

“We were ahead 1-0, and in soccer, that’s not enough to win,” Alexander said. “We had to get more.”

Chatman’s goals came in the 37th minute in the first half and eight minutes into the second half.

On both scores, she was able to dribble through a crowd of Teurlings defenders and shoot from less than 10 yards from the net.

“Once again she stepped up her game tonight,” Amedee said. “That’s what it’s all about – senior leadership and taking your game to the next level in a game like this.”

Teurlings placed nine shots on goal in the game, which is lot more than Vandebilt senior goalie Mariah Boyd usually faces. However, she considered it a light workload due to the suffocating defense the Lady Terriers played in front of her.

“Our game plan coming in was to keep everything in front of us,” Amedee said. “We knew if we kept the ball in front of us, we were okay. We knew that Number 9 (Teurlings Catholic sophomore Sarah Hollier) was good. We didn’t want her to penetrate and beat us.”

For the seven Vandebilt seniors – Chatman, Warren, Alexander, Boyd, Allyson Voisin, Kate Corbin and Jessica Wooley – winning the school’s first two state titles in girls soccer was the perfect ending to their high school careers.

“It was the most amazing game I ever played,” Boyd said. “It was my last game of soccer I’ll ever play, so it made it more special that a bunch of my classmates and schoolmates came out to support us. This was just an awesome way to go out.”

With the girls’ team as repeat champions and the boys team not winning a title for the second straight year, the Lady Terriers could be considered the new soccer dynasty at Vandebilt.

Amedee is not ready to jump to that conclusion, but he is willing to try.

“We’re working on it one year at a time. It’s due to all the hard work that the girls had put in prior to this game,” he said. “We’re losing seven seniors, but we have a good crop of players coming up. I think we’ll play some exciting soccer again next year.”

Vandebilt Catholic Lady Terrier Cayla Chatman dribbles her way downfield through Teurlings Catholic defenders. The senior forward finished the last game of her high school career with two goals and second a state championship trophy. * Photo provided by GARY PHILLIPS