TOLEDO – With time winding down, and Toledo leading Onalaska 2-1 Wednesday night, it was fitting that the game would come down to a duel Daphnie Bybee and Brooklyn Sandridge.
With a goal already to her credit, Sandridge was looking to complete the Loggers comeback, after she was fouled near the box to give them a penalty attempt in the 78th minute. On the other end, Bybee had blocked nine shots already on the night, and needed to make a 10th save to keep the Riverhawks ahead in the waning moments.
Sandridge lined up her shot, aimed down the left side of the net, and Bybee made a terrific save to preserve Toledo’s 2-1 victory.
“PKs are not easy,” Riverhawks coach Noel Vazquez said. “It’s always a 90-10% chance and you’re the 10%. She did a great job, she read it beautifully and made it really fun for us in the last few minutes.”
The Riverhawks (8-1, 3-1 in league) used Monday’s 2-1 loss to Kalama as motivation for their win against the Loggers (8-1, 3-1 in league) Wednesday, and picked up a big win for the league standings race.
“It's the one game that we write in the calendar that we don’t want to lose,” Vazquez said. “They have a really good football program, they destroyed our football team, but there’s a lot of school pride between these two schools … Today's game was a lot better than Monday’s game. The girls were a lot more settled in, they were more confident and they showed it.”
All the scoring damage was done in the first half, for both teams. Toledo got the scoring started off a free kick, when Rose Dillon found the back of the net after putting the ball over the fingertips of Ony keeper Alex Cleveland-Barrera.
But the Loggers fought back, after controlling possession for most of the first half, Sandridge streaked up the right sideline and weaved her way through half the Riverhawks’ team before putting away a shot for a goal in the 33rd minute. Two minutes later, though, Toledo took advantage of a sleeping Logger defense and Dillon scored a second goal in the 35th minute to take the lead again.
Thanks to the play of Riverhawks keeper Bybee, they kept that lead throughout the second half.
“On Monday she had a bit of a rough game, she had a couple slip out of her hands and she wanted to come out here and redeem herself,” Vazquez said. “She busted her butt today to make sure that nothing like Monday happens again. That’s what she showed today. Today she wanted to put the team on her back.”
On the other side, Cleveland-Barrera had a disappointing game by her standards, but finished with seven saves and kept the Loggers in it despite allowing two goals for just the second time in nine games this season.
Toledo will take on Toutle Lake next Monday in its next game, and Onalaska will look to bounce back against Kalama at home.
