Archive: Sports

The Lansing Girls Soccer team recently won the conference championship with a 2-0 win over Large School South Champ Elmira Notre Dame. It was the teams fourth title in a row and sets the stage for what hopes to be a memorable run in the postseason. The team from Elmira was a well organized unit and did an admirable job of limiting the usually potent Lansing offense. The Lady Cats found themselves often with eight or nine defenders waiting for them in the oppositions half. It would be a night in which the teams patience and persistence would have to come through.

In an all too familiar pattern of possession hogging ball movement, the ladies from Lansing were finally able to produce the goal they had sought. At the midway point of the first half a pass from the mid-field found an open Kathryn Hornibrook 25 yards away from Notre Dames goal. With her back to goal and with her first touch, she punched a ball out to the wide right to on rushing Nina Lindberg. Lindberg sped off and proceeded to find striker Ellyn Grant-Keane with a cross in the middle of the 18 yard box. The senior calmly collected the ball and cooly passed the ball the to far side of the goal beating the Notre Dame keeper. No more goals were to be scored and the teams retired to halftime.

With a possible 4-Peat at stake, the Lady Cats came out with a greater sense of urgency and seemed to settle in to the game a little more. What was lacking though was that cutting edge that can be found in the ladies game. There were crosses not met and passes not connected, the game was waiting for that spark that Lansing provides. Again the moment would arrive at the midway point of the half. Grant-Keane was found at the half-line just in front of the Lansing bench. She opened space for herself with an inside cut move and hit a 60 yard diagonal ball on a rope to Sabrina Tilton on the opposite wing.  The pass hit Tilton perfectly in stride and the sophomore for the second time in three games executed a deftly weighted ball to Hornibrook. Hornibrook had slipped undetected in behind two Notre Dame defenders about 12 yards out. She collected the pass with her left foot to set up a right footed finish to the keepers low left. Just as the first, the second goal came from a strong defense to offense transition and positive off ball movement. It is those types of sequences that will keep the team on track.

Barrett, Redmond, Bland, Palladino, Fields, Barrett, remember those names. That goal keeper and those defenders again were at their shutout best. It was the teams 13th of the year and the unit is continuing to be the backbone of the whole team. Stifling in nature and seemingly always first to 50-50 balls the girls in the back are a unit not easily beaten and have taken their jobs of protection at all costs seriously.

The newly ranked #1 team in Class B is prepared to take on rival Dryden in the Section IV Quarter-final friday at 3:30. The #3 seeded Lady Cats will host the game at Sobus Field. Dryden comes in  search of their first victory over Lansing since 2006. The task is a daunting one as Lansing has won its last 10 sectional games by a combined score of 36-0. In that time the Lady Cats have won the Section IV title the last three years.

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