By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
The ticket has been punched, now one more goal is in front of Yukon before the playoffs.
Winning a district title.
The Millerettes secured a spot in the playoffs Tuesday night with a 2-1 win over Edmond North in a District 6A-1 match at Miller Stadium.
The match may have been a little tougher than the Millerettes expected. Edmond North scored in the final five minutes of the match to send the contest to overtime and eventually on to a shoot-out.
The Millerettes stepped up in the shoot-out, winning 4-1 to win the match.
“We told the girls that the best teams don’t go through a season without facing adversity and finding a way to get through it,” Millerette head coach Steve Scott said. “We said that is what champions do. When things don’t go right, don’t go the way you want them to go when you should be controlling different aspects of the game and should get things done a certain way and they are just not happening the way we want them to happen and by fighting through and getting those done. We told them that is what we do when we get to where we want to go. That was the biggest part of it. We keep telling the girls when they step on the field, they are one of the best teams on the field.
“We told the girls that put us in the playoffs, but the journey is not over,” he said. “We have one thing ahead of us that we are looking for, a district championship. Tonight, we clinched a playoff spot and that is something to be proud of.”
The Millerettes did control the pace of the match and had several scoring chances that just missed.
Yukon had four strong scoring chances in the first half that either just missed wide of the goal or were stopped by the keeper.
Myka Heimbach scored the go-ahead goal in the 19th minute of the match. She took a pass from Katelynn Fair and easily beat the keeper for the goal.
The Millerettes continued to press their attack, but couldn’t get a shot to go in the net. And, when Edmond North scored at the 74:28 mark, overtime looked a certainty.
North had another chance to take the lead with 25 seconds left in regulation, but the shot was stopped.
Both teams had their chances in overtime, but the match ended 1-1 and went to the shoot-out.
YHS took the lead on Erin Enmark’s shot, went up 2-0 on one from Zoe Wilson and 3-0 on a shot from Asley Baker. North, who missed their first two, scored to make it 3-1, but needed to stop the Millerettes next two shots.
Bella Anson, though, was not to be denied and drilled the ball into the back of the net for the win.
“We didn’t get the diagonal balls in like we wanted to and that allowed North to collapse in on Myka more,” Scott said. “We wanted to get the ball wide and we did have some players have a tough night with their touch. We didn’t utilize the outside pace and when we did, we got in several times.
“We may have had a little hangover from that Putnam North win,” he said. “We told them what we expect from them and they came out and fought through it.”
Heimbach, one of the team captains said their focus is now on winning a district title.
“We didn’t know this was a game to get into the playoffs, so it was a big surpriss to us,” she said. “We still have games that we can win and get that home field advantage. That is exciting.
“We wanted to go out and hand it to them, but it didn’t go as planned,” she said. “We still made it happen and we are happy about that.”
