Lady Hornets suffer heartbreaking double overtime defeat against Brookwood

PERRY — In what was essentially a must-win game for Westfield (6-9), Brookwood (11-6) ripped their hearts out in the last minute of a 4-3 double overtime loss on Monday.

The Lady Warriors beat the defense down the left side and nearly pushed their way into the six-yard box before booting a shot into Addison Mozingo.

Lady Hornets head coach Liana Walton said Mozingo had over 30 saves on the day and more than 200 on the season, but this one hit her in the chest and spun into the goal with less than a minute left. The disappointment was palpable for both Westfield’s fans and players.

“They just beat our defense there at the end. We got beat there on the left side…We just couldn’t make it happen up top and score, we had a couple opportunities,” Walton said.

In the first overtime one of the Lady Hornets’ shot attempts hit the bottom of the crossbar and was cleared. Brookwood’s keeper also made an incredible save on Issy Dehem’s penalty kick. If those missed opportunities didn’t hurt enough, this loss likely eliminates Westfield from playoff contention.

They’re currently sitting at ninth in the MaxPreps rankings, which are used to seed the GIAA’s eight-team 3A state tournament. A win against 3A’s number two team would have greatly boosted those chances.

In the first 20 minutes of the game it looked like Westfield might cruise to their biggest victory to date.

With a fully healthy team for the first time this season Walton’s Lady Hornets looked dangerous. The clearance on defense was a significant improvement of that in district play, a result of their improved performance in the possession battle.

They were first to the ball often and pressed and jockeyed more. A big clear ended up at Dehem’s feet, and she shot the ball over to Savannah Scarisbrick for the first goal of the game 14 minutes in.

Dehem drove down the right wing and slid the second goal of the game past the keeper with 20:52 left in the first half to put Westfield up 2-0.

The vibes were high and to that point Brookwood had no response that could get past Mozingo and the defense.

The Lady Warriors didn’t even begin to gain ground when they snuck a goal in with 22 seconds left until halftime. Westfield was still firmly in control.

But the attack dulled in the second half. Something as simple as a few touches not going the right way derailed promising drives and a penalty kick awarded to Brookwood with 21:19 left changed the game.

Mozingo is an aggressive keeper, she comes out of goal and attacks rather than waiting for players to come to her. She collided with a Lady Warrior while challenging the ball and the ensuing penalty kick tied the game.

“She did awesome,” Walton said. “She plays aggressive and she plays hard…she’s not intentionally fouling another player and it’s very frustrating…But I’m glad she’s aggressive. Because of it she keeps us in games. She had over 30 saves today [and] she’s had over 200 saves this season. She’s an excellent goalie.”

With about 10 minutes to go Dehem lined up to take a free kick inches outside the box, and delivered an absolutely beautiful strike to the top left corner of the goal to take the lead.

That score tied her own school record for goals scored in a season at 32. She also holds the record for career goals, a part of a talented senior class that Walton shared several emotional moments with after the final buzzer.

“They’ve given a lot to the program. They’re excellent players. Most of them have been playing since middle school,” Walton said. Issy [Dehem] has the career and season goal records for the school. In fact, tonight she tied her [season] record from last year with 32 goals…Losing them is going to be a big loss for the team and I hate to see them go. All season I’ve thought about what’s it going to look like without them, so this being our last regular season game is sad.”

Dehem’s score only briefly put the Lady Hornets ahead; roughly three minutes later Aubrey Cribbs’ jockeying could not stop Brookwood from pushing into the box and zipping the equalizer past Mozingo with 6:50 left in the game.

It was an unfortunate finish to a group of seniors that have meant a lot to Walton’s program, one she says is forever changed because of Dehem, Danielle Benton, Rylee Mclure, Mariela Padilla Barragan, Adeline Pearson and Elisa Richardson.

“They raised the level of soccer at Westfield,” Walton continued. “Everybody plays better because of them, and so going forward our program is better because of them. They left their mark, and we’ll always remember them as being great soccer players.”

UP NEXT

Westfield waits for their fate to be decided by the MaxPreps rankings, which are updated weekly. If they move up to eighth they will play in the postseason. If not their season ended on Monday.