Provided by The Ada News – Jeff Cali
The Ada High School girls soccer team is making a habit of working overtime these days.
It worked out well against Madill in the Lady Cougars’ District 4A-1 opener at home Tuesday night.
Angie Long, Maryanne Criswell and Izzy McGinley all made penalty kicks in Ada’s thrilling 3-1 win over the Lady Wildcats.
“That’s something that seems to be a theme this year,” Ada head coach Hannah McCullough said of her squad’s OT contests.
Ada is now 3-3 (five varsity games and one junior varsity match) in overtime contests this season.
McCullough said going to extra time means her team is playing pretty sound defense.
“I think that the fact that we have tied games up or shut teams out is a testament to our defense and keeper,” she said. “Those games are always tough because they play so hard for 80 minutes and then have to keep their composure to sink a penalty kick.”
The Lady Wildcats and head coach Jose Cortez are no strangers to overtime. They had suffered three consecutive 1-0 overtime losses to Guymon, U.S. Grant and Lawton last weekend at the Chickasha Invitational heading into Tuesday’s matchup at Ada.
“Coach Cortez and I shared our frustration about that with each other after the game,” McCullough said.
Madill, now 1-6, struck first Tuesday night albeit with a bit of luck.
“Madill scored an early goal as a result of a corner that was bobbled after a collision with sophomore keeper Mikkiya Sloan,” McCullough explained.
Ada got a critical game-tying goal by Long off the bench that knotted the score at 1-1. Ada’s sound defense kept Madill at bay the rest of regulation play.
“Bell Boettcher lead the defense in keeping Madill out of our 18 for the rest of the game, while Konner Bickerstaff controlled the midfield and provided several opportunities for our offense,” McCullough said.
Sloan came up big for the Lady Cougars in overtime with three saves to seal the AHS victory.
“Ada’s last two shooters — Boettcher and McKayla Rios — did not have to shoot as a result of Sloan’s saves,” McCullough said.
Ada, now 3-6 overall this spring, is coming off a solid fourth-place finish at the Red Rock Tournament in Noble.
The Lady Cougars dropped a 4-3 decision to Harrah in the third-place match in — you guessed it — overtime.
McCullough’s squad returns to action at 6 p.m. tonight with a district matchup at Cushing.
