Lady Warrior senior Vanessa FrandsonBy Jason Parshall
Sports Editor
LARAMIE — “It’s amazing, I can’t even describe the feeling,” Lady Warrior head coach Bryan Allen said shortly after his girls advanced to the first ever Wyoming State 3A Soccer Championship.
The Lady Warriors were the first and last to score Friday in a 2-1 victory over the No. 1 ranked Buffalo Lady Bison in the state semifinals.
Both teams battled hard through the first 40 minutes with the game scoreless at halftime. Within ten minutes of the second half, Lady Warrior Brooke Beckstead found the net on an indirect kick with an assist courtesy of Kristi Fritzler.
The Lady Bison responded ten minutes later with what Allen said was “just a beautiful kick that couldn’t be touched.”
But the Lady Warriors weren’t interested in overtime.
With just four minutes to go in regulation, the scoring tandem of Beckstead and Vanessa Frandson pushed the team one step closer. A corner kick from Beckstead sailed directly to the head of Frandson, who punched it in for the 2-1 lead. The Lady Warrior defense held strong and Worland secured a spot in Saturday’s big show.
Lady Warrior Julie Schlager“It was amazing how they turned things around,” Allen said. “We talked a lot before the game. We discussed not being intimidated out there. It doesn’t matter if they’re the No. 1 team in the state. None of that mattered.
“Mentally, the girls went out and played perfect. They played hard and did everything we asked of them. Their runs were great, the defense was incredible, Katie Casdorph played an amazing game at keeper, we controlled the pace of the game. Buffalo’s a great team, so it wasn’t just us going back and forth. I can’t take anything away from Buffalo, they’re a strong group of girls, today we just played a little better.”
Allen said the girls were absolutely elated at the victory. “Emotions are just running wild right now,” the coach continued. “I didn’t see any flaws in our team. It was night and day from yesterday’s game (against Newcastle). Yesterday, we just came out and played a bad game. I think we needed that. The girls realized they had to come out and play a great game to beat a team like Buffalo and they responded.
“Credit goes right to these girls. Buffalo scored and our girls just picked up the pace. Most times a team would get down in that situation, but our girls wanted to win. They got the goal and we didn’t let down.
“With a few minutes left in the game Brooke and Vanessa did it for us again. That has been the story all year. Vanessa was physical down in there, got the ball and headed it right in. From there we completely shut Buffalo down.
“I think they completely overlooked us. But this was an incredible team effort for us. We had some subs that came in with Carly Trombley in the first half and she did excellent, Ashley Apland came in and did a great job. Even our girls that didn’t play were so supportive.
“With Julie Schlager on the left side, Shelby Beckstead on the right side, Kristi and Vanessa in the middle, they did a great job. Our defense has probably the best defenders this team has ever had. With Brooke in the back and Alyssa (Sonesen), Lisa (Kysar) and Jayde Gonsalez, and Katie Reed who came in to sub for them, those five were just incredible on defense today. Our forwards with KieLee (Ellsworth), Brittany Kapptie and Sami (Richins) just did amazing.
“Everyone filled a part of the team. It’s a family we have out there and they truly played like it today. Our fans were amazing. We had a lot of support, the girls felt it and we were so proud of that.”
Worland has had an incredible run this year. After winning nearly three times as many games as any other Worland girls soccer team, the Lady Warriors went into state for the first time, beat the Newcastle Lady Dogies in the snow, rain and cold through a double shootout, and followed up with a win over a team that has been ranked No. 1 all season long.
Now they’ll face the other No. 1 seed in the tournament. A team that has also beat them twice in the regular season as Buffalo had. Standing in the way of Worland High School’s first state soccer cup are the Jackson Lady Broncs.
“Jackson is tough,” Allen said. “We just played them a little over a week ago and it’s going to be a tough, tough game for us. They’re a different style of team than Buffalo. They like to pass the ball a lot, they use the field well and they’re very tall. But we have an idea of what they’re capable of and all we can ask is for our girls to go out there and play hard.”
The Lady Broncs beat the Lady Warriors on the Worland pitch Mar. 28 3-1, and followed up with a 2-0 victory May 10 in Jackson.
The Lady Broncs handled Torrington Thursday 9-0 to advance to the semifinals, where they beat Cody 3-0 Friday afternoon.
Kickoff for today’s Wyoming State 3A Soccer Championship is scheduled for 10 a.m. on the University of Wyoming Stadium Soccer Field.