By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– South Salem’s Reese Hayward is just happy to be back on the pitch contributing for the South Salem Girls Soccer team.
After suffering a gruesome ankle injury as a junior, tearing three ligaments in the joint after landing awkwardly, that sidelined her for several months, Hayward scored the go-ahead goal in the 42nd minute in what became a 2-1 South Salem victory over West Salem on Monday night at home.
“A lot of it was mental. It feels so amazing, I missed it so much. I learned that being on the bench, you learn how to help your teammates around you, how to help your teammates through heartache. I learned how to be a teammate off the field and this year I’m really focusing on how to be a good teammate on the field as a captain and as a senior,” said Hayward.
The motivation was there for Hayward, she didn’t want to lose to West Salem again after the heartbreak of last season losing to the Titans 4-2 and 2-0 in Central Valley Conference play. It’s been since September 30, 2022 since the Saxons had defeated West Salem. West Salem went 5-0-2 over the last seven games against South Salem.
“I knew what was at stake, losing pretty badly to them, I just knew that I had a role to fill,” said Hayward.
Hayward’s goal capped a quick burst of goals by the two teams.
South Salem led 1-0 entering the second half. Both teams had their opportunities during the 40 minutes to score, but couldn’t capitalize on those opportunities.
Within the first 120 seconds of the second half, both teams scored. Taylor Forest scored the tying goal in the opening seconds of the second half that knotted it up at one before Hayward scored her goal following Forest’s goal.
“It felt really good and really happy to finally execute the goal,” said Forest of the goal. “We really need to work on finishing, it’s one of the things that we need to work on. We can definitely connect more and just be aggressive during the whole game.”
What began to look like a potential high-scoring second half came to a quick halt after the Saxons regained the lead. Similar to the first half, both teams created opportunities, but neither could capitalize. The physicality picked up as both sides searched for that one opening, but it never materialized, with both defenses creating headaches with timely stops. Leading to South Salem snapping their winless streak to West Salem 2-1 and improving to 3-1 in CVC play.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
