Thacher comes from behind to tie Westlake in the first round of the Birmingham Charter Tournament

After several days of productive practices following our La Reina win, Thacher headed to Birmingham Charter on Saturday to compete in their tournament.  

We entered into our first game against Westlake High School knowing that the squad had one outstanding player that we had to key in on.  Westlake won the first draw, but we got the ball back and challenged before Westlake regained possession and scored three minutes into the game.  Westlake won the draw again, but we battled back and won the ball, ultimately getting it to Susanna Renfrew, who put it away to even the score at 1-1.  Westlake challenged several times, but goalie Lexie Kirkwood made several key saves.  Unfortunately, the Toads could not withstand Westlake's pressure, and gave up two goals, putting Westlake up 3-1 with 15 minutes left in the half.  Fortunately, Isobel Hayne found the ball and drove the cage, scoring on a beautiful bounce shot and Ciara Byrne put another away 3 minutes later to even the score 3-3.  Westlake answered back with another goal from their #14, but then Byrne fed Hayne, who cut down the middle for a beautiful goal with 2 minutes to go.  Westlake won the draw and scored, leading 5-4 at the half.  

We made some adjustments at half time, including putting Sarah Voss on Westlake's best player, with instructions to faceguard her.  This is a challenging job for a defender, as she must stick on the player like glue and can never slide of leave her man.  Voss was up to the challenge, and did tremendous work over the course of the half.  Nonetheless, Westlake came out strong and notched three goals in the first 8 minutes. Little did the team know that those goals would be their last.  Thacher's defense tightened, and the core of Grace Callander, Mackenzie Boyden, Madison Rubeli and Marissa Lopez, along with goalie Kirkwood did excellent work.  At the other end of the field, the offense started slowly evening the score.  First Hayne scored on a beautiful pass from Renfrew.  She followed up that goal with another, three minutes later.  Three minutes after that, with 4 minutes remaining, Byrne drove and scored to make it 8-7.  After an incredible draw control from Voss, Thacher came down the field and settled the offense.  Sasha Ongley passed the ball to Byrne, and Byrne drove and scored to even the game with a minute left on the clock.  Back at the draw, a little bit of chaos ensued, but Westlake emerged with the ball.  However, our defense applied great pressure, forcing Westlake into a bad pass, which was scooped up by Grace Callander, who attempted to move the ball up the field as time ran out.  We found ourselves with an 8-8 tie, and the tournament rules stated that a coin flip would determine who went on to the championship bracket and who would go to the consolation bracket. We lost the coin flip and headed on to the consolation bracket.