BULLETS FIGHT BACK, PUNCH TICKET TO SEMIS
By Ben Kaufmann
County Courier
FAIRFAX – After a nightmare start conceding a goal 21 seconds after the opening whistle, No. 3 BFA-Fairfax bounced back to hold off No. 11 Windsor on Saturday. Anna Sargent scored an equalizer and Ava Ardovino posted two goals, including the clincher in the second half to give the Bullets a 3-2 win and a ticket to Wednesday’s Division III semifinal at No. 2 Leland & Gray.
“They beat us last year in playoffs, so it’s nice to get our revenge,” said BFA senior defender Kali Wooster, who helped secure that revenge with a stellar defensive recovery to prevent a Windsor shot on an empty net early in the second half with the score tied 2-2.
Wooster’s defense was crucial in holding the Yellowjackets scoreless in the second half. The denial of that second-half chance will stand out as a play of the game, but another Wooster retreat to deny a breakaway to Elliot Rupp, who scored both of Windsor’s goals, with the game tied in the final minute of the first half was just as important.
Wooster’s defensive linemates – Paige Cargill, Faith Benjamin and Marie Larose were equally strong, buckling down after a pair of first-half breakout goals from the speedy Rupp. As usual, when push came to shove, BFA’s senior goalie Kamryn Taylor was a rock. For a Bullet team which is 13-1-1 and has outscored opponents 70-12, the Fairfax backstop doesn’t get all the credit she deserves for keeping the ship on course.
“She’s incredible,” Ardovino said of her goalie.
“She communicates, especially with the defense and where we need to mark up,” Wooster added.
BFA coach JoJo Lynch said Taylor’s presence mixes will with Wooster as the last lines of defense.
“I can’t say enough about Kam being such a steady goalkeeper, being so consistent. She’s one of the more quiet kids on the team but she is a force, an underrated force to be reckoned with,” Lynch said, joking that Wooster brings a different style to the defensive end.
“And Kali, Kali is the loudest on this team but she’s a nightmare to be back there.”
Taylor made five saves on the afternoon, the most pivotal ones coming on a slide near the 18 late in regulation and in catching a dangerous 30-yard free kick from Rupp in the final minute of play.
The Bullets showed great resilience after Rupp got free on a breakaway to give the Yellowjackets a 1-0 lead just 21 seconds in. Cargill tried to send a pass to Ardovino near the top of the box just a couple of minutes later and Ardovino got the ball around the keeper but put the rushed shot just wide. Just over five minutes after Windsor’s opening tally, Emma Spiller cut a cross to Ardovino on the far side of the box and Ardovino declined to try a tough shot and instead rolled the ball to the top of the 18 where a wide-open Anna Sargent ripped a shot to the keeper’s left to knot the score at 1-1.
Rupp again got into the box with 20 minutes left in the first half and placed a shot off the inside of the left goalpost to return a 2-1 lead to the visitors. Taylor did well to keep the game close, sliding to stop another one-on-one from Rupp a few minutes later.
BFA again equalized thanks to Emma Spiller and Ardovino with seven minutes to go in the half. Spiller and the keeper arrived to a bouncing ball in the box at the same time and a clear push from the goalie sent Spiller hard to the ground. A penalty was correctly awarded and Ardovino blasted it under the arms of the diving goalie to even the score at 2-2.
“I was so thankful,” Wooster said. “I’m glad Emma’s OK but that penalty really picked us up.”
The Bullets tried to take a lead into halftime with a pass from Raegan Decker just getting ahead of Ardovino and a Taylor Duquette shot off a corner kick ending up right at the keeper. Cargill and Sargent both put long shots at the goalie in the final minute before Wooster broke up one last Rupp breakaway attempt to send the game to halftime knotted at 2-2.
Wooster’s save after a ball had bounced over Taylor’s head eight minutes after halftime proved to be crucial. Thanks to that recovery, the game was still tied three minutes later when a Cargill corner kick made it through the box where Ardovino could knock it to the goalie’s right to give Fairfax a 3-2 lead.
Ardovino and Spiller each saw a couple of chances the rest of the way but the longer the lead remained at one goal, the more BFA’s defense and midfield shone. The defense and Taylor were solid when called upon, but were called upon less thanks to an impressive midfield effort from the Bullets. Duquette, Molly Wimette, Nikki Cholewa, Sargent, Decker and Bridgett Dunn were all poised and efficient in holding the lead in the middle of the field. The call came from BFA’s bench with nine minutes left for Spiller and Ardovino to retreat and, with Taylor’s help, BFA held its lead and earned the semifinal berth.
“It was intense. Honestly I don’t think I was breathing in the second half,” Lynch said. “Once we got that message across that we needed to get everything up and out, that was the goal and they did it phenomenally.”
Though she probably won’t test the strategy again on Wednesday, Lynch said it ended up being helpful to concede an immediate goal and ensure a sense of urgency for more than 79 minutes Saturday.
“I think we were kind of caught on our heels a little bit in the beginning with that first goal, we were kind of shocked. And then it was almost for the best that they scored first because it kind of lit a fire under us.”
BFA’s headlines tend to go to its high-scoring trio of freshmen: Ardovino, Spiller and Cargill. But asked whether the blindness to pressure which sometimes accompanies youth was preferable to the wisdom of her 11 seniors, Lynch was clear that it’s the upperclassmen like Wooster, Dunn, Taylor, Wimette, Larose and Cholewa who are most responsible for bringing the group to its potential.
“Right now it’s the seniors all day,” Lynch said. “I know the freshmen were nervous, but they performed. But it was the seniors that held the backbone together today. They’ve been here, they’re veterans, they know what to expect.”
The Bullets earn a semifinal berth a long bus ride to Leland & Gray in Townshend for a 3:00 kickoff. BFA did not face the Rebels in the regular season and the two teams share just two common opponents: Fairfax beat Winooski 7-0 and the Rebels beat the Spartans 6-1 and Leland & Gray defeated Windsor 3-1, suggesting Wednesday should be a fairly even matchup between the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds. Fairfax last played in a semifinal in 2015, losing a 1-0 game to Oxbow as the No. 1 seed. The Bullets haven’t reached a championship since losing to a loaded Peoples Academy team in 2012 and have never won a girl’s soccer championship.
