E.A. Sports Today

Just a bit short

Donoho girls finish one game short of a state championship, unbeaten season in 3-1 loss in 1A-3A title match; will be updated

The Donoho girls soccer team were disappointed with the outcome of Friday’s state championship game, but they rushed to collect the runner-up trophy.

By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today

HUNTSVILLE — Trinity Presbyterian may not have entered the state soccer tournament as highly rated as Donoho and certainly with more losses, but Lady Falcons coach Jay Jenkins knew the Lady Wildcats were a formidable and dangerous team.

After all, they were a state champion (2018) and runner-up (2019) in a bigger classification (4A-5A) in a previous life and held their own against some much bigger teams this season.

The Lady Wildcats knew their way around the ball and controlled the action most of the game in an eventual 3-1 victory Friday night at the John Hunt Soccer Park that ended Donoho’s dream of winning a Class 1A-3A state title and completing an unbeaten season.

The loss was Donoho’s first since the next-to-last game of the COVID-canceled 2020 season and snapped a 15-game winning streak and 23-game unbeaten streak. They finished the best season in the program’s history 21-1-1 and in a place a lot of other teams would have loved to have been.

“We knew coming in we were the underdog,” Jenkins said. “They beat a team that’s playing in the 7A final. They tied the Hoover team. They were good. We knew they were good. They didn’t have any weaknesses. We couldn’t find any weaknesses.

“We played our hearts out tonight. Our strategy was to play a strong defense and try to keep them out of the goal and try to win it 1-0, 2-1, something like that. We knew we had to make the most of every chance that we had and they had to make a couple mistakes. I don’t think they made any mistakes. I don’t think we made the most of every chance we had either.”

Tosin Sanusi scored Donoho’s lone goal with 15:24 to play, banging home a rebound after Trinity keeper Kaylee Peevy stopped Erin Turley’s free kick. Turley hit the post twice in the game.

By the time Sanusi scored, however, Trinity had a 3-0 lead. The three goals were two more than the Lady Falcons had given up in any game this season.

The Lady Wildcats (19-4-1) scored the first goal of the match when Mary Alice Sasser beat Donoho keeper Maggie Wakefield to a loose ball in the box and pushed it into the cage with 28:02 left in the half. They peppered Wakefield with nine shots in the half and had three corner kicks.

The third corner produced the second goal. The ball came across the box, Emily Etheredge fanned on her initial shot, but reteed and found an open right side of the goal.

“Jay told me before the game I was going to be busy tonight and, man, he was right,” Wakefield said. “I knew from the beginning he was right. I knew as a player for me to take the next step in my career I needed this pressure. The team needed this pressure. And, you know what, I think we handled it pretty well.

“We had some mishaps, which turned into unlucky goals, but we all did what we could.”

Donoho had only one shot in the half, a long one by Sam Wakefield with 22:47 left and only three real chances. On the other two, Turley took it deep down the left side and banged a shot off the post and later had a cross that fell into an empty space.

Trinity scored its third goal on a penalty kick by tournament MVP Healey Mathison on reserve keeper Callie Taylor with 20:30 to play. The shot was the result of Wakefield getting a yellow card for a foul in the box on Hastings Avant’s run.

Taylor, a seventh-grader, got her hand on the shot.

“That right there gives me hope for the future of Donoho,” Wakefield said. “I could care less if she would’ve stopped it. She had the courage to get up off the bench and go in and do it, and that gives me so much hope for this program and for our school. The future of Donoho is so bright.

“Today Jay in the locker room said there’s been a mountain that has been built for 13 years and we are on the top of it. And you know what, the top of it still isn’t built. We’re still climbing to the top of it and we’re making the top of our mountain. This is something Donoho’s never done. This is the first time our female soccer team has gotten here. I think we’re all just proud to make Donoho history.”

“We’ll be back,” Jenkins said. 

It’s been a banner year for the Donoho girls’ athletics program. The Lady Falcons have brought home state runner-up red trophies in three sports this season — volleyball, tennis and, now, soccer. Lily Grace Draper played on all three teams. 

“I feel so lucky to be a part of all three teams,” Draper said. “It’s a little disappointing we couldn’t finish in all of them, but we played so great in all three of them. So proud of all my teammates.”

CLASS 1A-3A GIRLS SOCCER
Championship Game
Trinity Presbyterian 3, Donoho 1
Trinity 2 1 — 3
Donoho 0 1 — 1
Goals: Mary Alice Sasser, Trinity, 11:58; Emily Etheredge, Trinity, 38:22; Healey Mathison, Trinity, 59:30; Tosin Sanusi, Donoho, 64:36. Shots: Trinity 11, Donoho 3. Goalie saves: Trinity 1, Donoho 8. Cards: Maggie Wakefield, Donoho (yellow), 59:30.

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