www.theadvertiser.com/article/20110226/SPORTS/102260308/1006/Lady-Rebels--turnLady Rebels' turn
From staff reports • February 26, 2011
— Brook Conque got her second chance, Sarah Hollier got her hunch right and Hannah Thibodeaux got her wish.
And most importantly, the Teurlings Catholic Lady Rebels got their girls soccer state championship.
With the score tied at 1-1 with about a minute and a half left in regulation, Conque's direct kick after being fouled went through the hands of Vandebilt Catholic's goalkeeper, off Hollier's thigh and into the goal for the 2-1 game-winner to lift Teurlings Catholic to a Division II girls soccer state championship win Friday in Houma.
"I did," said senior defender Thibodeaux, whose wish was to beat Vandebilt on its home field after losing 5-2 in the finals and 5-0 in the semifinals in Houma over the past two seasons. "I got my wish. It (game-winning goal) was amazing. It was so exciting. I was so excited for Sarah.
"The game went about like I expected. We were able to shut down the wings. This year's team was just so much closer and was a little more seasoned."
The Lady Rebels improved to 20-4 on the season in capturing the first state soccer title in the program's history.
Teurlings coach Lance Peltier said just after the penalty ruling was made, a different referee had whistled offsides on the Lady Rebels.
"It was actually confusing," Peltier said. "At first, we really didn't know what the call was. We were kind of thinking it was offsides on us."
Once it became apparent that the Lady Rebels were getting a free kick, the coaches selected Conque to do the honors.
"I don't really remember much about what happened on the penalty," Conque said. "I just knew I didn't want to take the kick, because I had messed up on the kick before.
"They told me to kick it at the upper crossbar. I just tried to calm down and kick it like I normally do. It actually went through the goalie's hands. We just started freaking out because we knew there wasn't much time left."
Hollier felt like she had a pretty good idea where Conque would boot the ball, so she positioned herself accordingly within the box.
"I had a feeling about where she (Conque) might kick it," Hollier said. "We work pretty well together. She (Conque) kind of lobbed it in there and it went through the goalie's hands. It actually went off my thigh.
"It's an amazing feeling. We had underclassmen that really stepped to the plate for us all year and it worked. We won state."
The game was deadlocked at 0-0 at the half, but Hannah Savoie wasted no time changing that just minutes into the second half. Accepting a pass from Hollier, Savoie split a pair of Vandebilt defenders and "took it in with a nice low shot," according to Peltier.
"We had a good halftime speech and came out really pumped up," Savoie said. "The ball was passed to me, I kind of juked a player and the goalie came out to the ball. We had a few opportunities to score earlier in the game, but that was our best opportunity to score and we put it away."
Then "about 25 minutes into the second half," the Lady Terriers struck back with a goal to tie it at 1-1. Vandebilt headed in a corner kick for the goal.
It stayed that way until Conque and Hollier teamed up on a goal the Lady Rebels won't soon forget.
"It was very exciting," Peltier said. "They had a bigger crowd than we did obviously, but our crowd just erupted when Sarah scored that goal.
"The scouting reports we got on them were very accurate. They were very fast and very good. The last two seasons ended on that field. That gave our girls a lot of motivation to play better this year and they won a state championship."
NOT!!!