Panther girls win in penalty kicks

Confidence is often the key in crunch time, and the Mt. Pleasant girls' soccer team showed no fear in a clutch round of penalty kicks on Monday. The Panthers were taken to PKs by Southeast Conference rival Fairfield after a 1-1 tie through two overtimes, but Mt. Pleasant kept up a winner's attitude.

'We asked the girls who is ready to take one. Nine of them said, ‘yep, I'll take it,” says head coach Brennan Williams. 'That's the level of confidence we haven't seen, where the whole group of kids say, ‘Yeah, the game is on the line. I'll take the shot.'”

The Panthers needed just three of their five shooters to step up in penalty kicks. Mary West, Kaela Welcher and Sydney Doak all made their shots, and keeper Ayden Ross allowed just one of four opportunities to slip past her to earn the 3-1 shootout victory.

West started things off with an early goal off an assist from Lizzie Litchfield just four minutes into the game. She nearly had a second goal with 27 minutes remaining in the first hlaf, but her shot went off the crossbar and out.

Fairfield tied the game off a free kick with 17:48 remaining in the half. Clare Else lined up and sent home the game-tying goal, which made it 1-1 going in to halftime.

Mt. Pleasant had plenty of shots throughout the second half, including free kick by West right before the buzzer, but Fairfield's defense turned away every opportunity, sending the game into overtime. Ross made a clutch save in the final four minutes, making a sliding stop on Fairfield's Emily McAvan.

The Panthers had to play against the wind in the second half, and were still in the same situation in the first overtime, facing the wind and a Trojan team that had the opportunity to steal an early SEC win.

'I told them, this is going to be the hardest 10 minutes of the game, no doubt,” Williams said. '(But) we really controlled it even with them having the wind.”

The Panthers had a few chances in the first overtime but absolutely dominated the second. The Panthers saw chance after chance come up just wide, and Fairfield's defense was able to force a second OT.

The penalty kicks were all Mt. Pleasant, however, and the defending SEC champions survived to move to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in conference play.

The Panthers will try and make it four in a row to start the season when they hit the road on Thursday, April 11. Mt. Pleasant will be playing Keokuk in search of their second-straight conference win.