Valley girls roll after slow start

GREENFIELD — Junior Hailey Gross tied a program record with five goals in leading Nodaway Valley/West Central Valley/Adair-Casey girls past Creston, 8-0, in a Class 1A Region 3 quarterfinal match here Tuesday night.

The Valley girls (13-2) advance to 14th-ranked Gilbert at 6 p.m. Friday at Gilbert. Gilbert advanced with a 5-0 victory over Carroll Kuemper Catholic Tuesday.

In the other semifinal, Ballard plays at top-ranked Nevada. Ballard upset No. 13 North Polk Tuesday, 3-1, while Nevada cruised 9-0 over Des Moines Christian.

Tuesday’s match stayed deadlocked for nearly 12 minutes, until Gross found the left corner of the net to start her scoring binge, taking a pass from Abby Miller to the middle.

It stayed 1-0 until Miceal-Ann Wathane hit a shot from the outside left in the 24th minute. The Valley girls added three more goals before halftime for a 5-0 lead at the break, including two more by Gross and the final one by Josi Ocheltree off a redirected cross by Alicia Urquhart with just 26 seconds left in the period.

“Give Creston credit, when they came out at the beginning of the first half, they took it to us and put our girls back on their heels at first,” said Valley coach Mike Krawczyk. “Our girls realized they were in a game, and kind of woke up about halfway through that first half.”

Creston’s challenges for the ball did not seem as strong the rest of the match, after that scoreless first 11 minutes. Valley got rolling again after halftime on a penalty kick by Urquhart, which was partially blocked by Creston goalkeeper Taquana Williams before it slipped past the line near the far post.

Two nicely played through balls led to two more goals by Gross in the 47th and 51st minutes, with assists by Ocheltree and Christina Boss.

No goals were scored in the final 29 minutes, although Creston senior Hanna Luther did have a hard shot stopped by Valley goalkeeper Hannah Link in the final 10 minutes. It was the only shot on goal for Creston (2-14).

“Our girls did a great job of winning the ball in the midfield,” Krawczyk said. “Hailey Gross tied a team record of five goals in a game, joining past players Allie Fillman, Jennifer Beitz and Katie Schwartz.”

Creston coach Kim Lauffer agreed with Krawczyk that Valley was aggressive in winning possession of the ball to set up attacks.

“Honestly, we just didn’t fight for the ball as hard as I was hoping we would do,” Lauffer said. “That was probably the major strike against us. Because, when we got the ball, we did good things with it. There were several times that we took it from our defensive third into our offensive third.”

Lauffer also said the score doesn’t indicate the value of Williams’ alert play in the net. Williams finished with 22 saves. Valley was unable to end the match early on the 10-goal mercy rule.

“We had over 40 shots and their keeper must have had at least 20 saves,” Krawczyk said, “or it could have been a lot uglier.”

It was the final match for Creston seniors Savannah Hartman, Angelica Claytor, Williams and Luther. So, the team must replace its starting keeper (Williams) and leading scorer (Luther’s five goals) next year.

“We’re very proud of our seniors and they will be missed,” said Lauffer, who plans an awards banquet at 6 p.m. June 9 at her residence, 1011 No. Poplar Street.

Krawczyk, meanwhile, faces a tough road ahead with two highly ranked teams still in the Region 3 bracket, including the No. 1 team.

“Nevada is the really tough one, but we know Gilbert will be very good, too,” Krawczyk said. “I think us and Creston kind of got a bum deal, because we got taken out of the western district and brought into Nevada’s. We lost 1-0 to Tri-Center and Underwood, and our girls were hoping for a chance at revenge to go to state. But, it is what it is.”

Friday’s winner will play at 6 p.m. Monday in Nevada.

NV/WCV/A-C 8, Creston 0

Creston (0) — Shots (on goal) — 5 (1). Individual shots (on goal)— Hanna Luther 2 (1), Savannah Hartman 2, Kalan Bloodgood 1. Keeper saves — Taquana Williams 22.

NV/WCV/A-C (8) — Hailey Gross (Abby Miller assist), 11:32; Miceal-Ann Wathne, 23:36; Gross (Christina Boss assist), 26:34; Gross, 28:14; Josi Ocheltree (Alicia Urquhart assist), 39:34; Urquhart PK, 45:36; Gross (Ocheltree assist), 47:04; Gross (Boss assist), 51:13. Shots (on goal) — 46 (26). Saves — Hannah Link 2.