Lady Lynx split wins with two top opponents

By: 
Staff report
Jill Meier/BV Journal 
Brandon Valley’s Zoey Mandery battles for the ball against Harrisburg’s Sydney Hage during and Eastern South Dakota Conference match in Brandon last week. The Tigers won the 1-0 game.
The Lady Lynx faced two of their biggest challenges within a matter of days last week, and the end result was a 1-0 loss and a 1-0 victory.
“We had a tough stretch of games to play against No. 1 Aberdeen and then No. 2 Harrisburg, … both of them undefeated and both teams playing at a high level,” Brandon Valley head coach Jacob Shoup said.
 
BV 0, Harrisburg 1
 
The Lynx proved they can play with the best of teams, including the Harrisburg Tigers, who BV took to task Sept. 15 at the BVHS Stadium. 
 
“We felt pretty good at how we played them in the first half,” Shoup said. “We moved the ball well and they had a lot of speed up top and we limited their chances.”
 
Lynx goalkeeper Paige Hoeke stepped up with some great saves and BV’s defense did their job by keeping things in front of them. 
 
“We also felt like we had some dangerous chances in the first half and were just controlling the possession,” Shoup said, “So, at halftime, we felt pretty good at where we were at in the game.”
 
The Tigers came out in the second half, producing “one of the quickest goals I ever remember giving up in my years of coaching,” the Lady Lynx coach said.
 
The Harrisburg goal came off the second-half kickoff when the Tigers were able to drop the ball back to the midfielder with their left forward streaking down the left side. The Tigers played a beautiful ball over the top of the Lynx defense and a Harrisburg player received it and played an amazing curved ball to the back side to the a complimenting forward sprinting down the field and then knocked it in with a header goal. 
 
“It was one of the most beautiful goals I had seen this season,” Shoup said.
 
That was all that the Tigers needed to sew up the 1-0 victory. 
 
“We still felt like we played well and we matched up fine against them and we like our chances against them if we get to see them again in the playoffs,” Shoup said.
 
Despite the outcome, BV outshot Harrisburg 17-11.
 
BV 1, SFL 0
 
The Lady Lynx were able to flip the script of a tough 0-1 loss to a tough 1-0 win against Lincoln on Thursday. 
 
The Patriots, down some starters due to injuries and close contact quarantine, were still able to bring the thunder to the BVHS Stadium in the opening half.
 
“I was not happy with our effort in the first half,” Shoup said, pinpointing BV’s lethargic and lack of energy play.
 
“We didn’t move well and there was no urgency,” he said, noting his team’s fortune regarding a Lincoln goal scored in the first half that was taken off of the board.
 
On a free kick, outside the Lynx 18, it was ruled an indirect kick but the Patriot taking the kick thought it was direct. Although she scored with an indirect kick, another player must touch it first, which preserved the scoreless game heading into the break. 
 
The Lady Lynx regrouped at the half and Shoup challenged his team to pick up the pace, and the girls responded.
 
“We moved the ball much better and played much more together as a team,” he said. 
 
That effort paid dividends with about 15 minutes left to play. After making the decision to move one of the Lynx midfielders – Emma Haas – up into the final third at forward for possession purposes, Haas was not only able to do that, but scored the winning goal off a cross from Kennedy Nuebel. 
 
BV’s 1-0 victory over the Patriots positions the Lady Lynx in position to win the Metro Conference for the second year in a row. The Lynx will host Sioux Falls Roosevelt on Oct. 1 to determine who will be the Metro champ. This week, BV hits the road for a pair of ESD Conference games against Huron on Sept. 22 and Watertown on Sept. 24.
 
“We are looking to continue to get better and improve in the final two weeks of the season before we head into playoffs in October,” Shoup said.

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