By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
CANBY, Ore.– The Silverton Girls Soccer team survived the test that Canby threw their way on Wednesday evening. It took overtime, but the Foxes found a way to extend their season beyond this road trip to Canby High School.
The Cougars, coming off a Greater Metro Conference title this season, went with a defense-first mindset as they loaded up their back-half with all but one player to throw-off the Foxes attack. And it worked. For much of the game, Silverton couldn’t get comfortable. When they did get anything going offensively, they were pushed outside.
The Foxes did manage to get a goal though entering the second half. In the 29th minute, Ellie Petersen found a gap in the Cougar defense and finished an opportunity that put Silverton up 1-0 at that time. The score held going into the halftime break.
“I felt like that really brought us up in energy, we played really good after that. I felt like once we broke through it, it made it a lot easier,” said Petersen.
Canby quickly evened out the energy in the first 20 or 25 minutes of the second half however.
Coming out of the halftime break, the Cougars caught Silverton on their heels, in a lull, and were able to tie the game up at 1-1 five minutes into the second half. Campbell Cutsforth had the goal coming off a corner kick.
And over the next 15, 20 minutes or so, Canby rode that momentum before Silverton came back around and made it a stalemate for the remainder of regulation. The Cougar defense did what they’ve been doing all game and slowed down the Foxes offense, but Silverton stepped up their game defensively to make sure Canby didn’t score again.
The Cougars didn’t, but neither did the Foxes as the game finished regulation tied at 1-1.
“It was really stressful, but when we all work as a team and have a positive mindset, we work well as a team together,” said Kensley Tegman.
Tegman had her moment three minutes left in the first of the two overtime periods.
Silverton, who used those last half of the second half to settle back down, played as they did in the first half: as the aggressor. They played as one. The gaps in the defense began opening up more, and with about three minutes left in the first overtime period, Tegman connected from about 25-yards-out to put the Foxes back ahead, leading 2-1 going into the second overtime frame.
“I knew we had to take long shots, so I feel like we came prepared, I feel like,” said Tegman. “We have a lot more confidence going into Summit, definitely feel like we have a good chance against them”
Before they could even set up a match with Summit in the 5A State Quarterfinals, the Foxes had to hold off Canby in the final ten minutes of the game. And the Cougars threw everything at Silverton to try to even this thing up.
But to no avail as Silverton closed out the 2-1 Overtime Victory over Canby. Giving the Foxes a good taste of coming out victorious in a tough game with another one just ahead of them.
“Winning has been giving us a lot of confidence going into Summit now, now we know how to keep our attitude on the field, even if we get scored on,” said Petersen.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
