The Glenvar girls’ soccer season came down to five penalty kicks last Saturday, and the Highlanders made one fewer than Nelson County. That was the only difference in the game that saw Nelson win the state Class 2 championship and Glenvar take home the second place trophy.
“Saturday was a hard fought battle,” said Glenvar coach Kyleigh Phillips. “Our girls played their hearts out and left all they had in them out on that field. While we came up short I could not be more proud of the way our girls fought.”
The Highlanders came into the final four with a 19-2 record and looked sharp in their semifinal win over Central High of Woodstock on Friday morning. Glenvar took a 4-2 win at Salem High’s Spartan Field, highlighted by a three-goal hat trick from freshman sensation Gabby Barba that put her at 51 goals for the season. Junior Sawyer Wilson had the other goal and an assist.
“After going up 3-1 we got comfortable and gave up a quick one right before the half,” said Phillips. “But the girls played hard.”
That set up a championship game on Saturday morning at Spartan Field against Nelson County, who beat Clarke County 3-0 in the other semifinal. Nelson was undefeated on the season, including a 3-0 win over Glenvar just nine days prior in the Region 2C championship game.
This one was a war. Physical play on both sides didn’t result in a score as the game remained nil-nil at the half and into the second period. Glenvar got a tough break when Barba was issued a red card with 9:42 to go after aggressively going after the ball. From that point the Highlanders had to play with 10 girls on the pitch to 11 for the Governors.
“Gabby going out hurt as she is so fast and is a great player, but the rest of the team stepped up and said we can still do this,” said Phillips. “She would have been a great asset out on the field for sure, but our girls did a good job not skipping a beat.
“I do not believe she should have gotten the red in that moment. Her passion for the game and her teammates may have gone a little far throughout the game, but she was beaten up all game and we were actually pretty proud of how she held her own.”
With Glenvar playing shorthanded the game remained scoreless through regulation time. Two five minute overtimes and two sudden death overtimes still didn’t produce a goal so it went to penalty kicks, with each team getting five.
Glenvar won the toss and elected to go second. The Governors’ scored on their attempt and Wilson’s try was saved as Nelson went up 1-0 after one round.
Nelson’s next attempt was high, and Glenvar’s Annie George found the twine to tie it at 1-1 after two rounds. Both teams scored in the third round, with Adalee Harvey scoring for Glenvar. Highland keeper Maddie Frackelton saved the next attempt but Scarlett McCall’s try went high and it was still 2-2 with one round to go.
Nelson scored on the fifth try, as Frackelton got her finger tips on the ball but could not pull it in. Then the drama continued as Frackelton took her turn at a kick. Two years ago on this same field Maddie scored on the final penalty kick in a similar situation to win the state championship against Clarke County. This time, however, her attempt was saved by Nelson keeper Piper Kelly and the Governors’ had their first state championship ever.
“Probably the best game I have seen our girls play all year,” said Phillips. “They truly played for one another and that’s the heartbreaking part. PKs did not justify their efforts in that game, in my opinion.”
Nelson finished with a 23-0 record while state runner-up Glenvar finished at 20-3. Glenvar’s only losses were to undefeated state champs, two losses to Nelson and a 1-0 loss to Cave Spring, who went on to win the Class 3 state championship with a 23-0-1 record.
“I knew we had a great group of girls and I knew we were going to work hard every day to make sure we held ourselves to the standard to get back to the state tournament,” said Phillips. “We were blessed with a great freshman class and had several returning players really surprise us this year that throughout the season the goal became much more believable. I am incredibly proud of the season we had.
“We did hear several times before the season started that we would not be as good when losing some players and the girls really surprised a lot of people. We battled injuries and different adversities that the girls could have folded but they never stopped believing in each other and wanting this win. This year was truly a special year and watching their friendships on and off the field was really special.”
Glenvar will graduate two seniors, Sophie Childers and Avery Steger.
“They were both huge assets to our program and worked hard day in and day out to be the best they could be for their teammates,” said Phillips. “They will be tremendously missed. They were both the type of player every coach would want on their team.”
