By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
WEBB CITY, Mo. – As soon as Allison Cundy’s shot found the upper left corner of the net, her teammates erupted at midfield. Cundy was quick to join them.
The Webb City junior’s goal in a penalty shootout lifted the Cardinals to a 4-2 victory over Monett on Tuesday night in girls soccer action.
“We squeaked by,” Webb City coach Nick Harmon said. “Didn’t take care of business in the first 80 minutes or the second 20, just put the ball in the net at the end during the shootout when we needed to.”
The teams played to a 1-1 tie at the end of regulation and neither could score in the two 10-minute overtime periods.
That sent the Cardinals and Cubs and five players from each team to the south goal to settle things with penalty kicks.
Webb City junior Hannah Robinson went first and scored with a shot to the right of Monett goalkeeper Madissen Brannon. Monett tied it on its second shot, a ball to the left by junior Wendy Izaguirre.
Webb City retook the lead on a shot by sophomore Mileah Metcalf. After Monett missed its third and fourth attempts, the Cardinals sealed it on Cundy’s goal.
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“I put the ones out there who strike the ball the best on the team and the ones who have some experience,” Harmon said. “The ones who have experience in those situations stepped up to the plate, some of our older girls. We did what we needed to do.”
Webb City hiked its winning streak to five games with the victory, but after scoring 12 goals in the previous three games it took more than 70 minutes for the Cardinals to score on Tuesday.
After a scoreless first half, Monett struck first when junior Alice Camp knocked the ball in off a corner kick in the 56th minute.
The Cardinals tied the game in the 70th minute on an unassisted shot by Robinson.
Harmon attributed the scoring drought to several individual mistakes.
“I sensed a lot of frustration among the girls because I think they were unhappy with the way they were playing and I think that was showcased everywhere on the field and the scoreboard included,” he said. “They’ve been rolling the last few games and we took a couple steps back today but it’s a credit to them for finding a way to win in a game they felt like nothing was going their way.”
Monett coach Neal Bluel was actually pleased with the result. The game was at least the sixth-consecutive loss the Cubs have suffered against Webb City, but the first time Monett has scored.
“Actually it’s a super good finish to be honest,” Bluel said. “Our program has never competed with this team. For us to go into overtime and take them into PK’s is a great result. For us to do what we did tonight, I think it’s a great result.”
It was also the fourth time this season the Cubs have gone to a penalty shootout to decide a winner.
“Normally that’s something that’s pretty rare but we’ve just been taking these teams into overtime and I think that’s where we are as a program,” Bluel said. “You’ve got to have a bunch of ties before you start having a bunch of wins. I think it’s where we’re at this season.”
Monett plans to work on penalty kicks in practice on Wednesday.
Webb City, now 5-2, will travel to McDonald County on Thursday. Monett, 4-5, travels to Joplin on Thursday.
