By Denise Tucker (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The 20th district championship is just as sweet as the ones that came before, Springfield Catholic girls’ head coach Ben Timson says.
The hall-of-fame coach, who began the Lady Irish program and is in year 24 at the helm, guided his top-seeded team to a 6-1 Class 3 District 6 Championship over the No. 2 seed, and Big 8 conference rival, Marshfield Lady Jays on Monday evening at Swisshelm Field.
“Winning a district championship is always special,” Timson said. “And now, we’re in Class 3 – (so it’s) even more so.”
For several years, the Lady Irish competed in the small Class 1 field and won 13 straight district titles. But along with that success came the challenges of moving up to Class 2, and eventually, Class 3.
“These Class 3 districts are (challenging),” Timson said of the level of competition the Lady Irish have faced, and have learned to play, since moving up classes, in addition to playing a tough schedule that includes several Class 4 teams. “We’ve always tried to get our schedule as strong as we can and that certainly helps us when it gets to this time of year.”
Catholic had a few shots on goal in the first 13 minutes or so, but both teams’ defenses were stingy in letting those early shots find the back of the net.
It wasn’t until Catholic was awarded a corner kick, which Bella Passanise delivered toward the goal, that Peyton Wiseman collected and struck from just inside the box for a 1-0 Lady Irish lead at the 27:07 mark.
A short four minutes later, Wiseman found the back of the net again when Olivia Swisshelm delivered a cross to the junior forward, who sent it to the upper left corner of the goal for a 2-0 advantage.
Marshfield had been quiet for much of the first half until coach Paul Lewis moved his high-scoring midfielder, Calli Watson, up top with about 10 minutes to go in the half. Watson stole the ball just past midfield and delivered the Lady Jays’ first shot on goal with about 9-1/2 minutes remaining.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
A short minute later, Catholic got another goal when Swisshelm crossed a ball into the box that deflected off a Lady Jay, giving the Lady Irish a 3-0 halftime lead.
“That’s one of those that’s really fortunate for us and unfortunate for them,” Timson said, “but we’ve had a few of those go against us this year, too.”
Even though his team was up 3-0 and had beaten Marshfield 5-0 at the beginning of the season, Timson thought his team could have been sharper in the first half and told his players to re-focus and start the second half as though the score was 0-0.
Timson’s players responded with multiple opportunities at the goal in the opening third of the second half, but no goals to show for it.
The Lady Irish were well aware of who was on the other side of the ball. Marshfield took advantage of a Catholic misplay at midfield and was able to get the ball to the heavily defended Watson, who found a crease and blasted a shot past the Lady Irish goalkeeper to get the Lady Jays on the scoreboard (3-1) with just over 14 minutes to go.
“The fact that we played two halves with them – I don’t think anybody else in the district played two full halves with them – it says a lot,” Marshfield coach Paul Lewis said. “You’re sitting there at 3-1 and you feel like you’re playing pretty good and then they do Catholic things.”
And it didn’t take long for the Lady Irish to answer, as the Wiseman-Swisshelm combo struck again on a Wiseman cross to Swisshelm in front of the goal.
Two more Wiseman assists – one to Izzie Belz and the last one to Campbell Morgan – increased the Lady Irish lead to 6-1, sending them to a district title.
“It’s just amazing,” said Swisshelm, a senior midfielder who is part of a class that won three out of four district championships. “All the girls and the coaches throughout the entire program history are just amazing. And to get this again… it never gets old.”
With Marshfield’s only goal on the night, Watson ended her high school career with 254 goals – third-most in Missouri history. The Drury University signee scored 46 as a freshman, 56 as a sophomore, 71 as a junior and 81 this season.
“People know who she is and what she can do and she just keeps going past your expectations,” Lewis said. “Not only is she a great soccer player, she’s a great kid. All of my kids are great; it’s a team thing. I think that we did prove that we were one of the two best teams in the district. For 60 minutes of that game, we were holding our own.”
The Lady Irish, who improved to 20-5-1, will face Rockwood Summit, a 1-0 (OT) winner over Union in the Class 3 District 5 final, at home on Saturday – one last chance for seniors Swisshelm, Haley Brown (goalkeeper), Kennedi Roubal (defender) and Maddie Meyer (midfielder) to play at Swisshelm Field.
“We have four days, four practices left,” said Brown, an Arkansas State signee. “We’ll come out and work hard every single day and take care of our bodies and take care of ourselves and just give it our all because it could be our last game.”
Swisshelm said the home field is “a great atmosphere.”
“That will definitely be to our advantage because we always seem to play better whenever we’re at home and when we have fans,” Swisshelm said. “(Rockwood Summit is) a great team, so we’re going to have to bring our focus, we’re going to have to bring intensity this entire week to practice and just focus and show them what we’ve got.”
(1) CATHOLIC 6, (2) MARSHFIELD 1
Class 3 District 6 Championship
MARSHFIELD (19-3) 0-1—1
CATHOLIC (20-5-1) 3-3—6
First half
Catholic – Peyton Wiseman (Bella Passanise assist) – 27:07
Catholic – Wiseman (Olivia Swisshelm assist) – 23:05
Catholic – Own goal – 8:16
Second half
Marshfield – Calli Watson (unassisted) – 25:24
Catholic – Swisshelm (Wiseman assist) – 21:30
Catholic – Izzie Belz (Wiseman assist) – 17:20
Catholic – Campbell Morgan (Wiseman assist) – 11:39
UP NEXT: Springfield Catholic vs. Rockwood Summit (Class 3 District 5 winner over Union, 1-0 (OT) in Class 3 quarterfinals on Saturday, May 25 at Springfield Catholic.
