Red Hot Solon Pushes Winning Streak to Six and Advances to Regional Quarterfinal With 2-0 Win Over Mid-Prairie
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
SOLON – For the first half of Wednesday’s Class 1A, Region 7 quarterfinal the defensive-minded game plan employed by Mid-Prairie kept Solon under wraps.
The Spartans created scoring opportunities, got good looks and controlled possession during the opening 40 minutes at Spartan Stadium.
What Solon couldn’t do was score a goal.
“This was a tough opponent in the fact that they always had numbers behind the ball,” Solon coach Amanda Paulson said. “They are a team that is going to sit in.”
It took one halftime adjustment and less than a minute for Solon to solve the Golden Hawk’s defensive puzzle after halftime.
Freshman Rose McAtee scored 52 seconds into the second half to spark ninth-ranked Solon to a 2-0 win over Mid-Prairie (9-6) in the postseason opener for both teams in Solon.
“Pregame we talked about moving the ball wide and at halftime it transitioned to we found the ball wide now we need to be working for that diagonal ball since we drew them all over,” Paulson said. “We did a good job of making adjustments.”
The win was sixth consecutive victory for Solon (15-3) and sends the Spartans into the Region 7 semifinals where they will host Washington (10-6) on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
A win Tuesday sends Solon back to the regional title game for the second consecutive season against the winner of the other semifinal between No. 8 Van Meter (9-5) and Centerville (11-6).
“We know we have to keep fighting,” Solon sophomore midfielder Gabby Knipper said. “We want to get to state, we are working hard to get there and we have to keep fighting.”
It was a fight for the Spartans from the outset on Wednesday.
Mid-Prairie didn’t mount much of an offensive attack in the first half but kept Solon at bay defensively.
Senior goalkeeper Ainsley Lueck was excellent for the Golden Hawks, coming up with a number of key saves to keep the game scoreless through the opening half.
McAtee got the Spartans on the board early in the second half.
“We talked at halftime that we wanted to come out and talk more and connect balls to feet,” McAtee said. “We had to be composed.”
Less than a minute into the second half McAtee gave the Spartans the offensive boost they needed.
Freshman Addi Greene found her classmate with a pass up the field and McAtee slipped a shot past a charging Lueck from just inside the box.
“Addi Greene gave me a perfect through ball and I got up to the goal and kept thinking ‘composure, composure’,” McAtee said. “It worked out.”
Just as Lueck closed in on the bouncing ball McAtee slotted a shot from the right side of the box into the lower left corner of the goal giving Solon a 1-0 lead with 39:08 remaining.
“I just aimed right to the low corner,” McAtee said. “A fastball.”
That is all the scoring the Spartans would need, though freshman Silvie Hendricks put the finishing touches on the win with a goal with 14 seconds left.
The Solon defense did the rest as the Spartans posted their sixth consecutive shutout.
The backline of Alex Locke, Maria Milliman, Izzy Paisley and Valerie Miller essentially gave junior keeper Alex Paisley the night off, snuffing out any Golden Hawk scoring chances.
Solon has now posted shutouts in 14 of 18 matches this season while allowing six total goals.
“Our back line is solid,” Paulson said. “We returned three of our back four and they work so well together. They are a solid group. They pinch well, they cover well and they have speed.”
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