GIrls soccer: Postseason PKs lift Redettes past Panthers
May 25—KNOXVILLE — May 1, 2014.
Up until last week, that had been the only day the Centerville girls soccer team had gotten the best of Knoxville. Cassidy Schacher's first-half goal lifted the Redettes to win, the only one in 17 previous meetings between the programs until last Wednesday night.
Eight years and 17 days later, Faith Owens would deliver the goal that would lift Centerville to yet another signature win. Owens fired a shot past Knoxville goalkeeper Abby Wadle in the seventh round of a penalty-kick shootout, lifting the Redettes to a thrilling Class 1A regional quarterfinal win over the Panthers after the teams finished 100 minutes of regulation and two overtimes locked in a scoreless tie.
"We practice penalty kicks every day. I've done pretty well in them. I make them sometimes. Sometimes I don't," Owens said. "I was kind of freaking out, but I just kept reminding myself that I was doing this for the team. When I made it, it was really great. We get to go on with the season."
Centerville's most thrilling win of the season would also be its last. Eighth-ranked Van Meter scored eight goals in the second half to put away an 11-1 win in the Region 3 semifinals, ending the winningest season in the history of the Redette soccer program.
"I've been here for five years trying to beat teams like Knoxville for five years," Centerville head girls soccer coach Tony Kurimski said. "When I got here, the program was pretty down. We had to build it from the ground level up. There would be a lot of these matches where it would be 10-0 at halftime or shortly after and it would be over. Slowly over time, we starting turning those 10-0 losses into 7-0, then 5-0. It just kind of got more competitive over the years."
Centerville has gone from a team that managed three consecutive one-win seasons to a team that has now won 27 of 51 matches over the past three seasons. Even in an earlier-season loss to the Panthers, Kurimski felt a breakthrough coming for his team.
"When we came up here a couple weeks ago and lost 1-0, we had an injury in the first few minutes that kind of affected our play and were kind of scrambling the rest of the way," Kurimski said. "We knew, when we saw the regional bracket come out and knew we were going to get another chance at Knoxville, we were really excited for it. We knew we could play with them and beat them."
To beat the Panthers, however, Centerville needed one of the best efforts in goal from their sophomore keeper. Maddison Casteel made 11 saves, including two stops on the final four shots of the 4-3 shootout won by the Redettes by spotting a trend in the Knoxville strikers.
"I just had to take a deep breath before I got on the goal line and just focused on the tendencies of the shooters," Casteel said. "I figured out they'd always go to the opposite side. I noticed the first couple girls would look to the right and going back to the left. They would all look one way and shoot the other way. From that point, I knew could keep as many out as I needed to.
"I did a little bit of praying to. I kept telling myself that I had this."
In her first season as Centerville's regular starting goalie, Casteel closed out her sophomore season stopping over 85 percent of the shots taken by opponents this year with 161 total saves, averaging nearly 10 stops a match. Casteel might not even be playing soccer if not for her eighth-grade volleyball season in which she was first coached by Kurimski.
"I just told her one day she should try out for soccer. She told me there's no way she was going out for soccer," Kurimski said. "She came out for her freshman year. She just continues to grow and develop. She's got a great attitude. That was her seventh shutout of the season. Without some of her great saves in overtime, we don't get to that shootout."
Owens, meanwhile, closed her sophomore season on the pitch with seven goals scored. Mickey Stephens, the all-time leading goal scorer in the history of the program, provided 26 goals in her senior season for the Redettes as well as leadership lessons that younger players like Owens hope to carry over to next season.
"Mickey's kind of my biggest influence. She's taught me a lot about soccer and made me way better," Owens said. "All of the seniors have been really good leaders. I'm glad this is how we were able to send them out."
— Scott Jackson can be reached at sjackson@ottumwacourier.com. Follow him on Twitter@CourierScott.
