Hart soccer's aggressive offense pays off in second half of win over Lakeview

HART — Hart battled for nearly 40 scoreless minutes against Lakeview to start Friday night's game, but the Pirates knew they had an ace in the hole in the second half - namely, better field conditions at the end of the field they'd be attacking.

They took full advantage of those conditions after halftime, pouring in three goals in the first 12:20 of the second half to expand their lead on the way to a 5-0 victory.

The south end of the field was muddier and more difficult to traverse after some heavy rainfall earlier in the week, and it had some effect on Hart's offense early in the game. Though the Pirates had the better of play, they had precious few legitimate scoring chances as the conditions forced their players to be a bit more tentative in their footing near the goal. On top of that, the wind was going against Hart in the first half.

"The first half, attacking into the mud, we wanted to get that out of the way, and the wind out of the way first," Hart coach Joe Gilbert said. "We knew it'd be not great footing, and we trusted in the second half, we'd be able to keep them out of our half as best we could, so we wouldn't have to deal with the mud in the second half."

The Pirates did get a penalty kick after Addison Barefoot was fouled in the box with 22:08 left in the half, but the kick was saved by Lakeview keeper Hailee Hendry. Forty seconds later, Zoily Sarabia launched a header on net, but it bounced off the crossbar to keep the game scoreless.

Natalie Rosema finally broke the standoff with just 1:32 left in the half, racing past a Wildcat defender and executing a nice move to get around Hendry for an easy tap-in goal.

The second half was a much simpler offensive task for the Pirates, with better footing and a slight tweak to take advantage of Olivia Bradley's passing ability. With Bradley, Viviana VanAgtmael and Barefoot locking down the middle, Hart attacked the Lakeview defense with abandon.

Freshman Kennley Riddell got the second-half scoring started, reeling in a deflected save of a Sarabia shot and firing it in for her first varsity goal. Just 24 seconds later, Barefoot knifed through the Hart defense and scored again, making it 3-0.

Gilbert said the mentality of his team to attack and go for more goals after scoring is something he picked up from his varsity coach, Bryan Mahan, when he played at Whitehall.

"The most likely thing to happen within five minutes after a goal is for another goal to go in," Gilbert said of Mahan's philosophy. "That's something I still preach to the girls today. 'Once we get that first hunt for that second, go after it and attack it right away.' That's something we train. We try to embed it into our own mentality."

"We would hustle to get in front of the ball, go to the ball," Sarabia added of her and her teammates' aggressive mindset. "We would have good communication. We were crossing over."

Hart didn't quite make it 4-0 in the next five minutes after Barefoot's score, but 8:25 after her goal, it was Sarabia again in the midst of the action. She made an athletic play to field a pass, control it with her left foot and fire in a score. Sarabia also polished off the game's scoring, again making an alert play to gain the ball after it deflected off the post and around the box and again scoring with her left foot.

Gilbert said Sarabia's putting two goals in with her non-dominant foot was no accident and is a skill she's worked to improve.

"Zoily is one we're looking for coming through to have a big year," Gilbert said. "She's done really well as a freshman and sophomore chipping in with goals. Now with our graduating class (from last year), we're looking more for her to really take charge in that middle. She's got some pretty good technical ability. Her finishing is getting better."

Riddell's one goal was a just reward for a young player that played, by Gilbert's estimation, five different positions over the course of the game as she filled in for a few injured Pirates.

"Just a good Swiss army knife to have, so she did a great job coming in and keeping it going," Gilbert said.

Gilbert additionally credited defender April Chaffee with an impressive game on the left side of the field, stating he couldn't recall Lakeview having any scoring chances on that side. Baleigh Klotz picked up the clean sheet in goal and only once came close to allowing one; she deflected a first-half Lakeview shot enough that it hit the crossbar, and she was able to come up with the ricochet.

"Though she only needed to make a handful of saves, Klotz demonstrated growth in her commitment to come out and claim crosses and through-balls," Gilbert said in his postgame wrap-up. "These are great signs."