Decorah soccer survives Cyclones in PKs

By Becky Walz,

The Decorah girls’ soccer team (4-3) started Monday’s game with energy, keeping Denver’s (4-3) defense under steady pressure for the first several minutes of the game. After regulation and two overtimes, the two squads remained deadlocked at 1-1, leaving the teams to battle it out with penalty kicks. When the dust settled it was the Vikings claiming the victory 3-1.
“This was kind of fun to watch if you like tension, but not so fun if you’re coaching,” said Coach Loren Hendrickson.
Denver eventually gained some footing and was able to get out of their own end briefly. With about eight minutes gone in the first half, Decorah scored on a great cross from Abby Milburn that Kaia Neal finished perfectly with a left-footed volley.
Unfortunately, just a few minutes later Denver caught the Viking defense napping, scoring on a scramble in front of the Decorah net when the Red and Blue couldn’t clear the ball. Clearly energized by their goal, Denver took over for a while, launching several shots from long range and keeping the ball in Decorah’s defensive half. Grace Bachelder made all the saves on those long “shots,” some of which were taken from 40-45 yards away.
Decorah had a few surges at times in the rest of the half and during the second half, but Denver really had the better of the chances. 
“Thankfully we did enough on defense to keep them off the scoreboard,” noted Coach Hendrickson.
The first overtime was back and forth, with both teams struggling to gain any continuity. The second OT saw Decorah come up with two “golden” chances for the “golden goal.” Kaia Neal had the first and couldn’t quite muster a solid shot to end the game. Clara Rooney had the next chance with a defender closing fast.  Rooney got the shot off, but just missed the near post.
In PKs, Denver won the toss and chose to go first. They scored the first and Decorah missed the first. After that, Grace Bachelder stopped the next three Denver spot kicks while the Payton Taylor, Grace Bachelder and Kaia Neal scored the next three to make it game over.
Decorah plays next at Union Thursday, May 6, at 5 p.m.

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