‘Long and lengthy’ penalty kick specialist was the right player at the right time.
Having played Lexington Catholic to penalty kicks once before this season, Highlands’ girls soccer team had an idea of what it wanted to do and how its PK goalie specialist would execute it after going through 80 minutes and two five-minute overtimes tied 1-1 with the Knights on Saturday.
The Bluebirds’ 6-foot center back, Lauren Deckert, donned a pair of goalie gloves and stretched out her long arms on the goal line for the shootout, saving the first shot she faced and seeing LexCath’s second go over the bar.
“She’s just so long and lengthy and the way she plays defense, she has a good knack for where the ball is going to be going,” Highlands Coach Alex Dean said. “We kind of gave her a tip on where they were going from our tournament game against them (in the Lady Knights Challenge back in September), so we kind of used those notes.”
When Maggie Stieby stepped up and calmly put her PK in the top right corner to make the shootout score 4-1, it sent Highlands to its second straight state semifinals. The Bluebirds were state runners-up last year to Sacred Heart. They’ll face Sacred Heart on Thursday in Lexington to try to thwart the Valkyries defense of the title.
Highlands (19-3-5) and Lexington Catholic played to a stalemate through more than three quarters of regulation with the Knights generating a few more chances, but neither team greatly troubling the other’s keeper.
“It was tough — but a lot of skill out there, a lot of effort on both sides. It was great to be a part of this,” said Dean, whose team advanced out of the first round to here with a PK shootout win over 12th Region champ West Jessamine. “It stinks that the game went to a PK shootout, but we’ve been practicing all year and even last year. It was nice seeing our hard work and our dedication on our PKs during practice pay off.”
LexCath took a 1-0 lead with about 11 minutes left in the second half as Bailey Stephenson’s free kick from outside the 18-yard box was flicked into the goal by Emily Scanlon.
But moments later, Highlands picked up its intensity and stormed LexCath’s goal.
Maria Broering turned back toward goal from just outside the corner of the 18 and played a ball in that found Jade Rehberger. Rehberger’s attempt to flip it backward popped in the air to set up a shot by Kenzie Nehus in the 6-yard box that got deflected into the path of Greta Noble.
“Getting in there, it all becomes a mess,” Noble said. “Jay had an amazing ball into the box and just getting a foot on it was all that mattered at that point. … I fell through it I guess.”
The Bluebirds’ response after going down 1-0 showed a toughness Dean had been hoping for from his team.
“We’ve been down before, but the amount of intensity (in this moment), I think we learned a lot from last year going down in the finals and kind of just sitting back,” Dean said. “We’ve told them if we lose 4-nothing or 1-nothing its a loss. We’re making sure that when we give up a goal, we’re doing our best to get the goal in the next five minutes. … It was great to see a lot of grit in getting that goal back.”
Lexington Catholic, the 11th Region champ, ends its season at 22-19-6.
“I think the teams were pretty equal,” LexCath Coach Terry Quigley said. “I think either team would have been worthy of winning this and I think Highlands will represent us well going forward.
“All coaches hate PKs, but it’s part of the game and you can’t do anything about it. You can’t complain about it. … We didn’t go down as the lesser team. We just went down.”
