Now That Was a Team in Union Tonight

Last night, I posted some sayings about being a part of a team. I am not sure exactly why I posted those; maybe it was the excitement of the football team’s big win against Ryle last week, maybe it was because the Lady Pioneers were feeling down after a hard fought loss to Highlands; maybe it was because the Holmes girls soccer team impressed me last night with their team attitude. What is certain though is what happened tonight to the Lady Pioneers soccer TEAM. That something was the girls coming together as teammates. One saying that was missed in last night’s list. That saying is: “When one team member goes down, everyone else has to compensate for that loss.” With that precursor, read on.

The Lady Pioneers hit the road for a triple header for the team’s 4th game in five days to take on the Raiders of Ryle High School who have been ranked 5th in the Northern Kentucky Coach’s poll. Once the big mandatory yellow Kenton County Bus rolled into Raider Nation, the clouds let lose with a nice little thunder shower. The rain was enough to cancel the Freshman and JV games due to slick field conditions. School officials decided to play the Varsity game at 7:00 to let the field dry. It didn’t help much as the field was just plain soupy in several areas. The game started at 7:00, wet field and all.

Frankly, the Lady Pioneers looked sluggish early on. The Eer’s defense took all kinds of pressure at the start of the match and it looked like the week’s schedule was catching up with the girls. The sluggish start didn’t last and the team started playing up to their ability. A ball sent in the box by Krista Russell was knocked in by sister Jillian as the Ryle defense slipped in the quagmire at the south-end of the field. SK took a 1-0 lead into half-time but the bad news for the Pioneers was that they were going to be defending the sloppy end of the field in the second half.

Coach Jones called up Senior Samantha Kampsen’s number to tend the muddy net in the second half after Lyndsay Figgins played the first half. Both keepers did a nice job tonight in absence of Stacy Lankheit but Kampsen's effort in the mud was especially tough. (It must have been the Spiderman keeper shirt.)

The team came out from the start of the second half and played some strong soccer. Krista Russell thought it was track practice as she sprinted up and down the left sideline. K. Russell was taking the corner kicks as SK brought the pressure. On one corner, the ball was dropped to her (sorry, not sure by who but I think it was Nienaber) after Ryle defended and cleared the ball out of the penalty area. K. Russell took a long lofting shot from the right side that found the far side of the net and SK goes up 2-0.

This is when things start getting interesting.
Caitlyn Figgins was doing battle with a Ryle midfielder. Let's just say she lost the ball, ended up on the ground (hmmm) and the ball got sent towards the Ryle corner flag. The Ryle attacker was able to get to the ball, make a couple of moves in the soup and score the goal. The score is now 2-1.

This is when things start getting even more interesting.
With about 25 minutes left in the game, a SK defender was breaking up a Ryle attack, carried the ball up the sidelines and got shoved from behind. I am not sure what exactly happened on the far side of the field after that but the SK player received a booking that forced the Pioneers to play a man down.

This was a situation that the team could have crumbled. They didn’t. For whatever reason the Lady Pioneers took it up a notch and started winning every 50/50 ball, every tackle, broke up every attack, and challenged with all kinds of pressure----you get the picture, they stepped up their game.

Here come the Pioneers! The team could have easily just played defense, sent the ball out of bounds etc., but they didn't, they brought even more offensive pressure towards the Ryle defense. K. Russell goes towards the flag with the ball and knocked it over the goal line off of a Ryle defender for a corner kick. Russell then T-ed up the corner kick, sent a perfect ball on the far post about 2 feet off of the goal line that Caitlyn Figgins volleyed in for the 3rd Pioneer score. SK goes up 3-1. The Pioneers weren’t finished. Five minutes later, K. Russell takes the ball to the corner once again, sends the cross into the box again. This time it was Brie Marti there to jump in front of the keeper and knock the header in. SK goes up 4-1. If you are keeping track, that is three assists and one goal for Krista Russell as the junior racked up a great stat sheet tonight for the Pioneers.

The Pioneers outscored the Raiders 2-0 once they went down a man. The girls simply put each other on their shoulders and willed each other to the win. The football game on Friday was exciting but for this, you just had to be there to appreciate.

There was one other quote on teamwork I didn’t post and that is from Aesop who said, In Union there is strength. That was certainly the case from there tonight.

Fig I


Jessie Cooper


A Ryle player with a whole lot of Fig II's, um, uniform


"I have got to get a manicure before homecoming." This was the only time the Blur was standing still as she found high gear in the second half for some reason.


Fearless.