By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
The goal is in site and Yukon has their eye on “the prize.”
Yukon will meet Westmoore in a showdown for the District 6A-1 title Friday in Moore. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. at Westmoore High School.
Both YHS and WHS enter the game with 6-0 district records and both have locked in a home field first round playoff match. YHS enters with an 11-2 record and Westmoore is 12-1.
“This is one of the goals we have worked on since the start of the season and we have an opportunity to go out and realize it now,” Millerette head coach Steve Scott said. “Westmoore is a very good team, they beat us last year and took us out of a home field first round game, so we know they will be an extremely tough opponent.
“They are similar to us, have speed on the outside,” he said. “They are also a very good defensive team so we expect a very tough game with them.”
Westmoore comes into the match shutting out their last five opponents and have recorded nine clean sheets this season. The Millerettes come in after shutting out their last two opponents and have seven clean sheets on the season.
“We know this will be a really tough game, but this is what we have been working hard all year for and we are excited to go in and have a chance to play for a district title,” he said. “We know what we have to do and have worked this week on prepreparing for the game.
“We will need to get our speed on the outside and make sure we have the spacing to make the crisp passes,” he said. “If we go out and do the things we know we can do, we feel we can come away with the win.”
The Millerettes won their 10th match in a row on Friday with a 7-0 win over Putnam City West at Putnam City Stadium.
It was a slow start for the Millerettes, as West played more a defensive match, packing the box in the first half which led to a 0-0 score at the break.
YHS came out and scored less than two minutes into the second half that started the rout.
“We told the girls they had to settle down and play and quit forcing things,” Scott said. “Part of it was how West was playing us. They were packing everyone in so what we did in the second half we didn’t do in the first half was we used our wide players.
“We started playing our wide players and they started getting in so it didn’t matter how packed in they were, that brought their players out and there were gaps everywhere in the middle. We finally started doing that and you see the result.
“We knew they were going to pack it in, they did it last year. They have a good coach and they knew what they were doing and were organized.”
The Millerettes did control the ball around 90-percent of the time and had chances in that first half, but with West having nine defenders and the keeper in the goal box, shots were being blocked or deflected.
YHS came out with a more wide approach in the second half and it paid off. Using their wide attack, the Millerettes scored in the 42nd minute on a shot by Jade Langoc. Myka Heimbach took a throw in, made the run to the goal, then passed to Kloie Vrana, who made the crossing pass to Langoc for the goal.
The Millerettes scored less than two minutes later on a corner kick. The ball went over the West goal keeper’s head and onto the foot of Erin Enmark in front of the goal and she pushed the ball in for a 2-0 lead.
Enmark scored a second goal five minutes later. Goals from Katelynn Fair in the 50th minute, Heimbach in the 59th minute and Jasie Eischen in the 61st miniute ran the lead to 6-0.
Aubrey Pickering closed out the scoring with a goal in the 70th minite.
“After the last few matches we had and coming in against a team like West, we were off a little bit, but we pulled things together in the second half,” Scott said. “We weren’t doing anything wrong, we just had to get out feet under us. Our touches were a little off, our passes were a little off and we came out and corrected those in the second half.
“We told them before the game that there are extenuating circumstances that happen sometime and you have to fight through then regardless of the situation,” he said. “We got started late and that affected out mindset and we had to settle that down. As the game wore on we made some changes to give us that spark.
“Some of the girls that struggled in the first half didn’t struggle in the second and it was a matter of finding our feet and getting into the flow of things. We can’t make that a habit and do it all the time. We made our adjustments both game wide and mentally and once we did that, we got the good performances we needed to come out and win the match.”
