A staple during the regular season played a key role to open the postseason for the Aberdeen Central girls’ soccer team Tuesday afternoon.
The Golden Eagles came up with another strong defensive effort in a 2-0 victory over Spearfish at Brownell Activities Complex.
“They did a good job today, just playing hard and doing what we want to do, putting pressure on them,” said Central coach Merle Aske. “They got some looks here and there, but not a ton. We gave up a lot of corners in the first half, but they weren’t overly dangerous. Most of the time our first person in the line could clear them out.”
Senior Kaylee Donat scored both of Central’s goals on the day, one in each half, both of them coming on corner kicks.
“I don’t know if we’ve scored a corner kick all year and then we score two today. When the ball’s in the box, we talk about it, especially on corner kicks, when the ball’s bouncing around you just gotta go put your foot on it,” Aske said. “She does a good job of always moving, and finding the ball and getting her foot on it, and today it worked out well for her.”
Donat was on the door step and found the back of the net to provide all the offense the Golden Eagles would need.
“I think it was just like right time, right place. I was just perfectly, the goalie’s down, it was wide open,” Donat said. “That goes for the second goal as well. She was out of position, and I was just right time, I guess.”
Meanwhile, the Central defense prevented the Spartans from getting on the board. Senior Addyson Keller said it was a team effort to help goalie Ava Beck record the shutout.
“As a defender I just try and keep as many good shots, quality shots off of Ava,” Keller said, “so she has the easiest time, and the shots that do make it through, she can just focus on those.”
The Golden Eagles have a strategy they employ when it comes to defending corner kicks.
“We have three, they’re more mids, that stand right in front of the net and basically their main goal is to body and get rid of any single ball that comes through,” Keller said, “and they did a phenomenal job doing that.”
Beck finished with nine saves en route to the victory.
“The girls did a good job of hanging in there,” Aske said. “Ava’s always going to have to make a couple of saves and she made the saves she needed to make.”
While the postseason has a different feel to it, the effort of the Golden Eagles was the same as what it was during the regular season.
“I just think no matter what, we’re always working hard,” Donat said. “I guess we’ve always done that in season and postseason.”
Central, 9-4-2, now hits the road to meet top-seeded and unbeaten Rapid City Stevens on Saturday in the quarterfinals of the playoffs. The Raiders defeated Central 4-0 during the regular season.
“We played them already this year,” Aske said. “We didn’t have any rest and they had about three or four days of rest.”
Aske said the Golden Eagles will prepare for the speed that Stevens possesses.
“The biggest thing is we just gotta keep playing the way we’ve been playing and plan a little bit for what they do, get our defense organized enough, and understand that they got a lot of pace and we’re just going have to probably drop more than we usually do, keep the ball in front of us as much as possible,” Aske said. “And hopefully we can get more pressure on them than we did in the first game, and find a way to get a goal early, and then really put the pressure on them and hold it off.”
Spearfish 0 0 – 0
Aberdeen Central 1 1 – 2
First Half: 1, AC, Kaylee Donat, 17th minute.
Second Half: 2, AC, Donat, 71st minute.
Goalies: Spearfish, Lauren Peotter (9 saves); Aberdeen Central, Ava Beck (9 saves).
Shots: Spearfish 22 shots, 9 on goal; Aberdeen Central 24 shots, 11 on goal.
