WCDS storms back in the second half

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on March 27, 2013 1:47 PM

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Just find Sarah.

And once the senior midfielder got more touches on the ball, Wayne Country Day's offense flowed smoothly and sparked a come-from-behind, 2-1 triumph over Wayne Christian on Tuesday afternoon.

Best tallied the equalizer and Margaret Tanner delivered the game-winning goal for the Chargers, who have won all six meetings against the Eagles since 2008.

The archrivals played a fairly even first half.

Each team transitioned well from offense to defense, and each attempted three shots on goal. The Eagles kept a close eye on Best, who had one defender on her hip and drew at least two more once the ball came into her area of the field.

"We really focused on marking Sarah," Wayne Christian head coach Daryl Anderson said. "If you can shut her down, you can pretty much stop them for the most part. We held them pretty good for a while."

The Eagles (3-4-0 overall) played confident, kept possession and broke the scoreless tie in the 24th minute. Senior Brooke Barfield received a through ball from Kasey Norris and Chargers keeper Bailee Creger came off her line to cut off the angle.

Barfield easily tucked it away for the 1-0 lead.

Wayne Country Day's best chance of the opening half came in the 39th minute when Best fired a shot inside the box that deflected off the post. The Wayne Christian keeper smothered the ball to preserve the one-goal advantage.

"(At halftime) we talked about Sarah being marked, so we had to build her confidence up a little bit and let the other girls know they could get the ball to her," second-year WCDS head coach Paul Casey said. "We decided to work the ball into her a little more. Plus, we really weren't taking any shots and we took more shots from further out in the second half ... took more chances."

The Chargers (3-1-1) controlled their dribbling in the second half and started to connect passes, which challenged the Eagles' defense. Two corner kicks in the 42nd and 43rd minutes failed to produce a goal, but Best finally came through in the 44th.

Wayne Christian gave Best too much working room outside the 18-yard box and she ripped a shot that deflected off the Eagles' keeper into the net.

Maggie O'Daniel just missed in the 47th minute and Meredith Roethling had a shot attempt bounce just wide of the post in the 56th minute.

"The second half, we didn't do quite as good a job of marking Sarah," Anderson said. "She got away from us some, we didn't stick her like I wanted. She got their offense set up and the second half, it kind of broke loose."

Best continued to distribute the ball from midfield with either Tanner, O'Daniel or Mollie Catherine McDonald making runs down the line. Tanner's game-winning goal in the 64th minute came out of the flow of play and helped the Chargers complete their regular-season sweep of the Eagles.

"I was proud of Margaret," Casey said. "She kept making her runs even though she wasn't getting the ball in the first half. She continued to do that in the second half, we finally got the ball to her and she got a goal."