In years past, members of the Loudonville Christian School girls soccer team would have traded in their cleats for basketball shoes by the second week of November.
Not this year.
The Eagles (14-3-1) accomplished a first when they knocked off top-seeded Fort Ann 1-0 in last Tuesday’s Section II Class D championship game at Stillwater High School. The victory propels them into Tuesday’s regional final against Section XI champion Smithtown Christian at Stillwater.
“It’s the first time, so we don’t know what to expect,” said LCS coach Joy Meyer. “But, the girls are so excited about it.”
The Eagles faced a tall task in beating Fort Ann (15-1-0), the state’s No. 1-ranked Class D team. The Cardinals were dominant in the Adirondack League, thanks to a high-powered offense featuring Kara White and Demi Stockman.
“Because they’re very aggressive and very skilled, we had to play them tough and play them tight,” said Meyer.
The strategy worked. LCS weathered numerous Fort Ann scoring chances through regulation to get the Sectional final into overtime. Then midway through the first overtime period, Fiona Fittro scored off a pass from Amanda Allen to give the Eagles the lead.
“It was a good pass from Amanda,” said Fittro. “So I ran right on to it, and I was praying to God the whole time to let me get it in.”
“They have such a strong defense that in overtime, I decided to pull Fiona to the outside, and that’s how she got open,” said Meyer. “She went down the right (side) and cut into the middle, and it was her against the goalie.”
LCS still had to pull through the rest of the first overtime period and the entire 15-minute second overtime period to win the game. The Eagles went into a defensive mode and continued denying Fort Ann any quality scoring chances.
“As soon as we scored, I changed up the (game) plan,” said Meyer.
“It definitely was really hard,” said Fittro, who leads the Eagles with 31 goals in 18 games. “We had to play 100 percent the whole time. They had a lot of corner kicks and a lot of high kicks.”
Now LCS is preparing for its first regional girls soccer game, but the Eagles are doing so at their pace.
“We’re not practicing a whole lot,” said Meyer. “We’re making (Monday) a fun day because they can’t keep up this level of intensity.”
After all, it’s not every year the Eagles represent Section II in the girls soccer state playoffs.
“It feels amazing,” said Fittro. “We’ve come so far, and I knew we could do it.”
