Aberdeen Central cornered the market on goals Saturday afternoon at Brownell Activities Complex.
The Golden Eagles scored three goals on corner kicks on the way to a 3-0 Eastern South Dakota Conference girls’ soccer victory over Brookings.
Those set pieces do not just happen by accident.
“We’ve been focusing on trying to make sure that we’re dangerous on those and attacking the ball,” said Central coach Merle Aske. “The first couple of games we just didn’t attack the ball very well when we were putting the ball in play, so the girls did a much better job of attacking the ball and getting it to where we need it to be.”
Interestingly enough, the first goal was scored by Taylor Lyke – who is not normally at the front of the offensive attack – off a corner from Kailyn Poppen in the 16th minute.
“That was crazy. I’m usually not in front of the goalie. Coach (Kendra Hanley) changed me before the game. She told me that she wanted me to distract the goalie this game and that’s what I did,” Lyke said. “(Kailyn) kind of popped it in. It was very exciting. I was happy to be there.”
Poppen said she normally doesn’t single out a specific teammate when she puts the ball in play on a corner kick.
“We try to get it a little bit inside the six so that when our crashers are coming in, they can all find a head on it,” Poppen said, “but mine happened to be right to Taylor’s foot, so it worked out perfect.”
While Lyke didn’t score on the second corner kick, she was responsible for the Eagles getting the opportunity. She played a ball off a Brookings player that went out of play instead of trying for a difficult angle attempt at a goal.
“We’ve done it a lot in practice. On that play, you don’t want to go just right to the goal and try to kick it in the goal. You just want to try to get it off them, just so you get another opportunity for a corner,” Lyke said. “We’ve been very good on corners, especially last year and into this year. We get a lot of goals off of those.”
That heads-up play by Lyke led to a corner kick from Deshani Peters that Lauren Joosten deposited into the back of the net for a 2-0 lead in the 37th minute.
Aske said Lyke’s play is an example of what the squad wants to do to create opportunities.
“That’s what we talk about is being aggressive and getting after the ball and getting into those positions and winning the corner kicks, free kicks, and stuff like that,” Aske said, “so we can actually put the ball in front of the net and see what happens.”
Poppen not only put the ball in front of the net on another corner kick in the 53rd minute of the second half, she actually put the ball into the net.
“I didn’t know how it was going to happen, because the wind was not going my way,” Poppen said. “I was trying to get it far side back to Deshani and it ended up going over the goalie’s head.”
Poppen said the Eagles have made a concentrated effort this season to make the most of those corner-kick chances.
“The past two weeks we’ve been working on them, attack and defending and it’s paid off a lot,” Poppen said. “(Coach Hanley) asked me if I knew how to curve it in and I said, no. So I tried it and it was not going where I wanted. And then she told me where to hit the ball and ever since, I haven’t been able to un-curve it.”
Central owned an 18-5 advantage in shots on goal in the contest and even outshot the Bobcats during the second half despite going into a steady wind out of the north.
“The girls did a good job of just staying organized and when we’re going against the wind just playing feet to feet and organize and get the ball where it needs to be,” Aske said, “staying in possession of the ball and just keeping pressure on them.”
The Eagles, 2-1 on the season, host Pierre in another ESD contest at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Brownell Activities Complex.
Brookings 0 0 – 0
Aberdeen Central 2 1 – 3
First Half: 1, AC, Taylor Lyke (Kailyn Poppen), 10th minute; 2, AC, Lauren Joosten (Deshani Peters), 37th minute.
Second Half: 3, AC, Poppen, 53rd minute.
Shots: Brookings 13, 5 on goal; Aberdeen Central 38, 18 on goal.
Goalies: Brookings, Ashley Rients (15 saves); Aberdeen Central, Ciara Frank (5 saves).
