Pioneer girls hold off Colonels

April 18, 2012
By Mark Sawyer

Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Seemingly all last season when the Millbrook girls’ soccer team needed a goal it was Brooke Borlie who came up big for the Pioneers.

Tuesday night against Frederick County rival James Wood, the Pioneers jumped out to what appeared to be a safe 3-0 first half lead, but it was Borlie's two second-half goals that allowed Millbrook to hold off a fierce Colonel rally and escape with an important 5-4 Northwestern District win at Millbrook High School.

The win keeps the Pioneers undefeated in district play and at the top of the standings as they approach the halfway mark. “We kind of relaxed a little bit and were content with what we had done and not what we wanted to do,” Millbrook coach Carter Smith said. "It was a bump in the road but something we can fix. They were high pressuring us more [in the second half] which rattled us a little bit, but we weren’t playing our passing game like we usually do out of the back and I think that really hurt us.”

“We are 3-0 [in the district] but I still think we can play better. We’ve just got to work a little bit harder in practice on some things. We’ve got a blueprint, we’ll fix those things and by the end of the year, come tournament time, we’ll be playing our best.”

For the first 30 minutes of the game the Colonels had to be thinking Millbrook couldn’t play any better then it was.

During that time the Pioneers scored three unanswered goals and continually peppered Colonel goalkeeper Ashley Mullin with shot after shot while on the other side of the field Pioneer keeper Caitlin Schrader only touched the ball once and saw very little action in her half of the field.

Millbrook (5-3-1, 3-0 Northwestern District) got on the board early when sophomore Alysse Hamm got control of a loose ball in front of the Colonel net and hammered home a shot in the corner with 32:38 showing on the clock.

Almost exactly three minutes later Jennifer Share scored the first of her two goals when she took a nice centering pass from the near side and headed it past Mullin in the near corner to make it 2-0.

With all the action she was seeing Mullin actually did a good job of keeping the Colonels in the game by making several key saves, but there were just so many shots coming her way.

With just over 10 minutes remaining in the half Mullin again made a nice save on a hard shot from just outside the box, but she lost her footing and was unable to secure the ball. The rebound rolled right to Share and she was able to put home her second goal in virtually an empty net for a 3-0 lead.

Six minutes later the dynamics of the game completely turned against the Colonels, or so it seemed.

James Wood (3-5, 0-2), which was already dealing with a handful of injuries, was dealt another one on a very big play in the game.

After taking a perfect pass near midfield, Borlie broke loose and had nothing in front of her but the Colonel net with Mullin in front. Mullin came out from the net to challenge the shot, made a tremendous save, but in going to the ground for the ball took what appeared to be a knee to the head.

Borlie immediately went to check on her and after several moments on the ground Mullin was helped to the sidelines and would not return.

Mullin’s injury seemed to inspire her teammates though. Back-up keeper Vanessa Sousa came on and made several tremendous saves and was able to keep the Colonels in the contest, and right before the half Wood would start the comeback.

Just as the clock was approaching two minutes sophomore Marissa Maddalena lined up for a corner kick from the near side and as she sent the ball towards the net it appeared there was some confusion by Millbrook as the shot snuck past a pair of Pioneers and into the net to cut the deficit to 3-1 at the break.

It didn’t take long for Borlie to finally get into the scoring column in the second half. Surely with the missed opportunity from the first half still on her mind, she found herself racing towards the net with another breakaway chance almost midway through the second half.

This time, however, she would not be denied and was able to beat Sousa on the far side to make it 4-1 with 25:25 remaining in the game.

But the Colonels had no quit in them and they came storming back just over a minute later.

With 24:15 showing on the clock, the Colonels were fouled in the penalty box, setting up a penalty kick for senior Sarah Callaham and she delivered. She lined up her shot and beat Schrader in the lower corner on the near side to cut the deficit to 4-2 and put some new life in the visitors.

Having spent most of the first half in their own end of the field, the Colonels seemed to be energized following the Callaham goal and kept the pressure on the Pioneers defense and Schrader.

It didn’t take long before that pressure paid off and the Colonels again found the back of the net, this time with 21:44 on the clock when freshman Alexandra Stanford connected to pull the Colonels to within one at 4-3.

Just like a tennis match, the game was now going back and forth and the Pioneers were able to answer with an important goal and one that turned out to be the game winner.

The Pioneers were fouled just outside of the penalty box, meaning they would not receive a penalty kick but rather a free kick, and naturally it was Borlie to do the honors.

Like the veteran that she is, Borlie calmly lifted the kick over the wall of Wood defenders right in front of her and sent the ball right on goal. The shot hit the bottom part of the cross bar, shot down, hit the ground and scooted into the net past Sousa for a 5-3 advantage with 16:15 left in the game.

“Brooke’s free kick was brilliant,” Smith said. “It was right on frame, you couldn’t ask for a better kick. That gave us the fifth goal, we needed that one.”