Soccer seniors write history

At the conclusion of any sports season, “star” players are expected to step up and make the game-changing plays, right?

This wasn’t necessarily the case for the Husky soccer team during its final week.  During the most important time of the season, it was the seniors who came in clutch to help the team make history.

To make it even more impressive, three of the four seniors were not regular starters.

History was in the making, beginning with the Huskies’ final regular season game on Oct. 30 at Concordia, St. Paul. 

Starting goalkeeper Elizabeth Kelly was the first senior to step up and save the game. Literally.

With less than 20 minutes remaining in the second half of the 0-0 battle, a Concordia forward broke through the Husky defense at mid-field and was speed-dribbling on a breakaway.  Kelly came up huge and made a sliding save and cleared the ball far from the goal. But this wasn’t unusual for Kelly.

“I looked at it like any other save,” Kelly said. “I knew if I could get the shutout, then our offense would have more opportunities to score.”

Then, it was senior Jenn Clifford’s turn.

Clifford entered the game for the first time near the middle of the second half.  As she was about to run onto the field, coach Becky Heiberger shouted, “Here’s your chance, go be a hero.”

Little did anyone know, it would be Clifford who would win the game for her team.

With less than one minute to go in double overtime, the ball was bouncing around in Concordia’s 18-yard box. Clifford managed to get a foot on the ball as she was sliding to the ground.  The ball chipped right over the Golden Eagle goalkeeper’s head and landed in the back of the net. Game over.

“That goal is what my season came down to,” Clifford said. “All my hard work came down to that moment.”

The goal was Clifford’s second of the season, but the win sealed the Huskies’ third place seeding in the NSIC and home field advantage for the first round of playoffs, something that SCSU had never achieved before.

The huge overtime victory for the Huskies kept them rolling right into their home playoff game on Nov. 4 against Bemidji State.

Although the Huskies were dominating play under the lights at Husky Stadium, Bemidji State took a 1-0 lead near the end of the first half.

That 1-0 deficit would remain for most of the game, until senior Husky Chelsey Scheller took things into her own hands.

With just over seven minutes of play left in regulation, Scheller drew a foul as she was dribbling in Beaver territory.  Jessica Pafko took the free kick and lobbed a beautiful ball over the Bemidji State defenders, and eventually it landed on Scheller’s foot.

“It bounced right in front of me, and I just tried to hit it on-frame,” Scheller said.

And that’s what happened.  The ball soared into the right corner of the net, leaving no chance for the Beaver goalie to make the save, and the game was sent into overtime.

The goal marked Scheller’s second of the season.

“It was an awesome way to finish our last home game, knowing it was a goal that changed the game,” Scheller said. “It sparked everyone on the team. We knew the game wasn’t over.”
After a full 20 minutes of overtime play, the score was still 1-1. Because it was playoffs, a tie game resulted in a shoot-out, since a winner had to be determined.

This time, it was senior back-up goalie Kaitlin Kelly’s turn to shine.  Although Elizabeth Kelly had another impressive performance in nets that game, Heiberger made the decision to put Kaitlin Kelly between the pipes for the shoot-out.

This was Kaitlin Kelly’s fifth game appearance of the year, and on this chilly November night, it couldn’t have been more important.

“I was excited to get in and help the team out,” Kelly said. “I was a little worried about being warm, because my feet were frozen on the bench.”

In the shoot-out, both the Beavers and Huskies made five of their first six shots.

On the seventh shot she faced, Kelly put the game in the bag for the Huskies, making an incredible diving save.

“I had a feeling about that shot,” Kelly said. “I was praying, and I felt God telling me to dive left.”

The game concluded during the shoot-out, after junior Jessica Pafko made the seventh shot for the Huskies. The team swarmed Kelly and Pafko.

“It was one of the best feelings I’ve ever had,” Kaitlin Kelly said. “To be a senior, to make a save and to advance in playoffs, it couldn’t get any better.”

The 2009 Husky soccer squad had made history again, marking its first playoff win.  On Nov. 6, the team lost a heartbreaker to UMD by a score of 2-1. But the seniors can leave the team knowing they boosted to program to new heights.

“I think we showed everyone that we’re not a Cinderella story anymore,” Elizabeth Kelly said. “We deserved to be there.”