Tiger Girls Lose In Shootout

HUNTINGTON - For 94 minutes, the Columbia City and Warsaw girls' soccer teams played to a 1-1 tie on Oct. 14.

It took just eight minutes for Columbia City to decide Warsaw's fate on Saturday.

After playing to the overtime tie on Oct. 14, the teams faced off in the second overtime on Saturday, a shootout involving five one-on-one penalty kicks against the opposing goalkeeper. The Eagles won the game the quickest way they could - they made their first three kicks, while the Tigers missed their first three.

The 3-0 win in the shootout gave Columbia City the win and the chance to play Homestead in the championship.

Warsaw coach Brent Wildman entered the shootout believing his team was the better team. He left still feeling the same way, stopping just short of calling Columbia City's 3-0 win a fluke.

"If we were to shoot this thing out five times in a row, the outcome would be different," he said. "You shoot it out once ... it's kind of like the World Series. Anybody can win one game. But who's going to win the Series?"

The odds were not in Columbia City's favor coming in.

Wildman, suspecting the game could come down to a shootout, had his team prepared for such an occasion on Monday. That's why he wanted to finish the game then. It's also why Eagles coach Bill Duffy wanted to finish the game Saturday. He said after his team beat Warsaw he had never been in a shootout before. Regular season soccer games never go into overtime.

"We have never been involved in a shootout," Duffy said. "I'd never even seen a shootout. I played in college and seen lots of games since then. I had never seen a shootout."

From Tuesday through Saturday, Duffy and his team took a crash course on penalty kicks. Eagles goalkeeper Kim Beck estimated she took 200 kicks on Tuesday alone. Ten minutes before Saturday's shootout, the Tigers were in a group, going over the game plan. They were as relaxed as they could be.

At the same time, Columbia City drilled kick after kick at the goal up until the shootout started, still cramming in an effort to ace the test ahead of them. With each successful shot, Beck's shoulders would slump lower and lower. The Eagles were wound as tight as they could be.

"We were worried," Duffy admitted afterward. "This has been a rough week. We had kids who didn't sleep well, didn't eat well. There was a lot of stress in this.

"It was draining to prepare for this. We were trying to teach our kids to shoot the ball in, but we were also trying to teach Kim to keep it out. On every shot, somebody wins and somebody loses."

Jaime Heiden scored the first Columbia City goal against Warsaw goalkeeper Sara Barber, a shot that went to the top right corner of the net. Kim Cowan went first for Warsaw, and her shot went right into the arms of Columbia City goalie Kim Beck.

Columbia City's Cara Blakley then delivered a kick to the left of Barber for the second goal. The attempt by Warsaw's Jodi Wildman was too high, hitting the crossbar.

After kicks had gone right then left, Columbia City's Niki Strack went right down the middle for the winning goal. Bobbi Wildman's shot for the Tigers was to the right of Beck, who stretched out and knocked it away.

Columbia City lost to Homestead, ranked No. 7, 5-0 in the championship.

Warsaw finished the regular season 6-6-1.

"The season's gone very well," Wildman said. "The girls gelled at the end. Their team unity going into the shootout was very good."