By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
FAUCETT - Penalty kicks in overtime was not a scenario that Mid-Buchanan had practiced a whole lot this season leading into Thursday.
It just doesn't happen all that often.
The Dragons (9-4) got some solid penalty kick practice against Chillicothe Thursday, knocking in four of their five attempts and getting two huge saves from goalie Mallie Lieffring to hold off the Hornets 5-3 in overtime at Mid-Buchanan High School.
"We hadn't really practiced them yet," Mid-Buchanan coach Danielle Beers said on penalty kicks. "So, it was good practice and I'm glad we got that practice. Even with not practicing them before, I was confident in the girls and I always ask them, 'Who wants to take one?'
"And whoever wants to step up, that's who's out there. The fact that they were willing to step up and take that on just shows the confidence they have in themselves."
The game started slow for Mid-Buchanan offensively, as the Dragons had only one shot-on-goal in the first half. Chillicothe (9-5) drew first blood with 15:47 left in the first half with a goal from Lucy Reeter. Juliann Gabrielson assisted.
"We really focused in on, at halftime, being aggressive," Beers said. "That ball is yours, you fight for that ball and the difference it makes whenever we fight for that ball and do whatever we need to do, it disrupts everything. That's what we focused on. How can we disrupt their flow of play to give us an advantage?"
The Hornets were held to just three shots-on-goal after halftime, and had a total of six corner kicks, but Lieffring stood firm in the Dragon goal, coming through with 10 total saves.
"I think defensively, we played really well," Lieffring said. "We were pressuring a lot. We worked really well as a team and talked quite a bit as a team as well."
Mid-Buchanan finally got on the board with 7:54 left in regulation. A Liv Moeckli corner kick went landed in between a number of different players and eventually went into the Chillicothe goal off of a Hornet defender, knotting the game at 1-1.
The game remained tied at the end of 40 minutes of regulation. After two, scoreless 10-minute overtime periods, it came down to a penalty kick faceoff.
There was a coin toss at midfield won by Mid-Buchanan. The goalie of the team who wins the toss gets to choose - do you want your team to kick first, or do you want to defend first?
The Dragons elected to kick first, and sophomore Emily Parrott knocked through the first of five penalty kick attempts from 12 yards away to give Mid-Buchanan its first lead at 2-1.
Senior Khania Clark, junior Taiylor Harrington and senior Alika Coon also made their shots to give the Dragons a nice cushion.
"It feels good," Parrott said, "but to see your other teammates score is just so exciting."
Chillicothe had successful PKs from Reeter and Skyler Powers, but two straight saves by Lieffring to begin the faceoff wound up being critical.
"It was very nerve wracking," Lieffring admitted. "I've never done that before. So, I just had to go out there and wing it and hope I could help out my team the best I could."
The win is the fourth straight for Mid-Buchanan - a program in just its second season of existence, coming off of a district title game appearance last year.
The Dragons, a Class 1 program, beat a Class 2 Chillicothe team that's had winning seasons each of the last six years, and that has won two district titles since 2015.
"It gives us quite a bit of confidence," Parrott said. "To know we can beat someone so high up, it just really feels good."
A statement win in a lot of ways, but the job is not done.
"We're working really hard to be better than what we were last year," Beers said. "That's been our focus this year. Do everything we can to become better players every time we step on the pitch, and doing our best to keep that goal in focus."
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