Lejeune spoils Spring Creek's best soccer season in OT

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on May 21, 2015 1:48 PM

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SEVEN SPRINGS -- Life, oftentimes, is more like a Greek tragedy than the Disney fairy tales we sometimes dream about.

Sometimes the bad guy wins.

Sometimes your best isn't quite good enough and real life gets in the way.

Real life got in the way of Spring Creek's storybook ending Wednesday evening. Lejeune scored the game-winning goal in overtime during its 4-3 victory in third-round play of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 1-A girls' soccer playoffs.

"The circumstances of the game they didn't go our way," Spring Creek coach Carlos Borda said. "But every time something went wrong these girls fought back harder. They fight and fight and fight. I am extremely proud of them."

The Gators' first sign of adversity came at halftime when one of the team's leading scorers, Jordan Lane, was transported the hospital due to heat exhaustion. Spring Creek trailed 3-2 and tried to rally for a win for their teammate.

They came out of halftime and Rheanna Ried drew a penalty kick in the 52nd minute that Cassie Alphin punched perfectly into the upper left corner of the net. Ried and Madison Harkay each added a goal in the first half to keep the Gators afloat for the second half.

And after Alphin's game-tying goal put momentum in the Gators' favor, they continued to play inspired as fans yelled phrases like "win it for Jordan," from the sideline.

Kaitlyn Sullivan made 13 saves in goal, and bailed out the Gators with terrific saves on more than one occasion.

"There were at least three shots in the second half where I thought it was for sure going to be a goal and she came out of nowhere to make a really quality save," Borda said. "She was great tonight. Everyone was great tonight."

The Gators hung on by a thread as the game went into overtime.

They had their chances but were never able to put one in the back of the net. Their best chance came on a long pass over the Devilpups' back line that Harkay ran on to and had a one-on-one with the goalie.

As Harkay approached the goal and readied to shoot, a Devilpups defender took Harkay down from behind and stole the ball. The referee let the play go on, to the surprise of many in the stands.

"I don't like to complain about offciails, but I thought that was a mistake (to not call a foul)," Borda said. "But we kept fighting after that and we continued to play hard. We just didn't have enough left."

Only 25 seconds into the second overtime session, the Devilpups broke the tie with a rebound from a sprawling save by Sullivan that Katelyn Caldwell put in the back of the net.

The Gators fought back, despite losing four players to injury at some point in the game and tried valiantly to get the equalizer. With just 20 seconds remaining and one last-gasp attempt at the goal, Ried went one-on-one toward the net and took a shot from just outside the 18-yard box.

It went wide.

The girls tried to smile about their success of the season. They tried to smile about how hard and how well they played with four injuries to key players in the game. They tried to smile, but sometimes when the game takes everything out of you, all you can do is cry.

And that's OK.

Because real life doesn't always have a happy ending.