Live by the penalty shootout, die by the penalty shootout. That's what happened to the Rising Sun girls soccer team last week. Two days after winning on penalties, the Tigers were booted by Fallston in a shootout 0-0 (5-4 penalties) in a region semifinal game Thursday afternoon at Rising Sun High. The Tiger shooters were as good as they had been in the win over North East two days earlier. Fallston was just a tiny bit better.
Tied 4-4 after the best-of-five shootout round, the Cougars triumphed in the sixth round when the Tigers' shot was saved and Fallston's Hailey Isaac converted. Isaac blasted a high shot. Rising Sun goalie Kira Watson jumped to get her fingers on the ball, but it caromed off the underside of the crossbar and down over the goal line to end the Tigers' season. Over a three-day stretch, the Tigers played 200 minutes of soccer plus a pair of penalty shootouts. "I'm very proud of the girls," Rising Sun coach Johnny Hartnett said. "[The Fallston game]. Last game. All season, really. They've come to play each and every day at practice. It's tough finding words at the end of the year, but I'm just very proud of the way this team came together. They had a bond like most teams don't have. It was truly a joy to come to practice each and every day for me and the other coaches. I think the girls had some fun, too." Fallston led 1-0 after the first round of the shootout on a goal by Elyssa Emmett. The Tigers' Raigan McLoughlin and the Cougars' Megan Stambaugh both scored in the second round. Katelyn Willis led off the third round with a goal and Fallston missed. McLoughlin and Willis also connected on their penalties against North East. Watson and Rebekah Taylor each converted in round four. Rising Sun's Madison Moran scored on a soft shot that fooled Cougars' keeper Emily Rhinehart. Rhinehart then kept her team alive with a goal to send it to the sixth round. Rising Sun rued a potential game-winning chance in overtime when Annalia Webb was ruled to be offsides. Otherwise, Webb would have had a breakaway. "There was some good soccer on both sides of the ball," said Hartnett. "There was some physical play on both sides of the ball. Fallston had their chances. We had our chances. Tough break with that call in overtime. I can't be disappointed with the way the girls played. They put it all together. They showed up to play. I'm very proud of them…You can't break it down to one call but there were a couple bad breaks. It's very disheartening." Inexplicably, it is the sixth straight season Fallston has eliminated Rising Sun from the region tournament. The Tigers have not scored a goal in that stretch. The players have changed. So have the coaches. The end result has not. "I don't think our girls think of it like that," Hartnett said. "We don't go into it thinking like that. We go into it thinking, next team. That's the only way you can think of it. You can't let it be a mental thing." Comments are closed.
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