FORT WAYNE – Manchester’s girls soccer team played an up-tempo game all season, so when it took on host Fort Wayne Blackhawk in the 1A sectional title match, the Lady Squires faced a team that liked to run, too.
Many times the pace resembled that of a basketball game, with both teams moving the ball downfield. The only difference between the two teams was a goal from Blackhawk’s Quinn Doden in the 37th minute, just enough to give the Lady Braves a 1-0 win and its first sectional title in the sport.
Doden’s shot from 35 yards out just cleared the outstretched arms of Manchester keeper Kiera Stacy.
“Coming in, I knew they had a couple of really skilled players in No. 2 (Lindley Neebes) and No. 8 (Doden), after watching them Wednesday night in the semifinals,” Manchester coach Jen Birch said. “But if nothing else, I thought we slowed them down a little bit.
“I was confident in our defense; we have really quick girls back there this year and I thought Jirni Cripe did a great job stopping as much as she could and not letting them get a lot of shots off.”
Manchester’s best chance for an equalizer came in the 44th minute when Blackhawk goalkeeper Lydia Stayton grabbed a shot, but lost her footing, and for a brief moment the ball. She quickly recovered.
There was a definite contrast between how the Lady Squires’ season ended last year in the regional, and this year’s sectional title loss.
“Last year I felt like our best chance was to pack it in defensively and hope for a good shot. This year I felt like we didn’t need to pack it in. I felt confident going in that we could score,” Birch said.
“I’m proud of these girls. This season I had no idea what we would capable of. They were really young; we played quite a few freshmen on this team. We had a lot of sophomores, a few juniors and our ‘keeper (Stacy) was our only senior.
“With that group of young athletes on the team, we had no expectations that they would go out there and perform like they did. But we definitely left our mark and we hope to come back next year and do even better.”
