Bre Wheatley hadn’t seen a whole lot of action through the first 94 minutes of Tuesday’s girls soccer match against visiting Franklin, but as the Greenwood goalkeeper got set to go back out onto the field for the decisive penalty-kick shootout, her coach had just one simple ask.
“I asked for one (save), and she gave me (two),” Woodmen coach Dan Appelbaum said. “You can’t ask for more.”
Wheatley opened the shootout with back-to-back saves, giving Greenwood the cushion it needed to come out on top after battling the Grizzly Cubs to a 2-2 draw through regulation and two overtime periods.
The sophomore’s stops were followed by PK tallies from Joelle Young and Emily Metzger, giving the Woodmen the upper hand. Franklin stayed alive into the fifth round of kicks, which Kaelynn Matern opened with a conversion to even it at 3-3, but Greenwood freshman Ava Brawley responded by putting away the winning shot.
“It’s hard going from a game like that to such high pressure,” Wheatley said of her clutch performance, “but you’ve just got to take it.”
Greenwood (1-0, 1-0 Mid-State) had control of the action for the majority of the evening but trailed for a good chunk of the game after Grizzly Cub sophomore Erica Buening — who scored six goals in a season-opening win over Jennings County — got her team on the board first with a second-effort breakaway goal early in the 23rd minute.
Franklin (1-1, 0-1) held that advantage well into the second half, though the Woodmen certainly had more than their share of chances. Perhaps the best of those came in the 58th minute, when senior midfielder Emily Metzger’s close-range shot was slightly deflected by Grizzly Cub netminder Sophie Taylor and then cleared by defender Morgan Harvey as it trickled toward the left side of the goal.
Taylor stayed busy on the night, making 14 saves — including quite a few difficult stops — and it wasn’t until Franklin was whistled for a hand ball in the box that Greenwood was able to crack the seal on the net. Metzger, the best player on the pitch throughout the match, made good on the penalty kick with 15:44 left in regulation to even the score at 1-1.
The first seven-minute overtime offered as much offensive action as the first 80 minutes had. Kendyl Farmer gave the Woodmen the upper hand with 2:59 remaining, punching in a rebound goal after Taylor turned away a Metzger free kick. Greenwood’s joy was short-lived, however; Buening got a breakaway off the restart and tied the game back up just 32 seconds later.
“I don’t know how she does it, because she’s not the quickest athlete, but man, she gets it done up there,” Franklin coach Michael Pierson said. “I don’t know how she gets a foot on it, but every time she does it seems to go into the back of the net.”
Taylor and Wheatley both came up with saves in the second overtime, setting the stage for the dramatic shootout that resulted in a big season-opening win for the Woodmen.
It’s a win that they hope will set the tone for the rest of the fall.
“It definitely gives us confidence, because we lost to Franklin last year,” Wheatley said. “So we’re already off to a really good start.”
