By: Matt Hanes
BROCKPORT, N.Y. – The Batavia Blue Devils girls’ soccer team earned a 1-0 victory over the Brockport Blue Devils after a late breakaway goal from Ella Shamp and two clutch goal post saves.
With the win, Batavia has won both its matchups this season against Brockport in the battle of the Blue Devils.
“We knew it was going to be a battle,” Batavia head coach Roger Hume said. “These guys tied HFL (Honeoye Falls-Lima), and we only beat them one to nothing. I knew it was going to be a battle tonight beforehand.”
Scoring opportunities came early for Batavia, with all three of its corner kicks being in the third minute of the game. Brockport was able to hold off the third corner after the kick went out of bounds.
Brockport's Danielle Holzschuh tallied the first save after Shamp found an open look in the 11th minute thanks to a pass from Leilah Manuel. Quickly after in the 18th minute, Brockport turned the tides with three straight corner attempts. Batavia defended all three, as the last one resulted in a save for Ava Higgins. The senior recorded Batavia’s fifth shutout on the year with help from the defense. She wrapped up a total of three saves on the night.
“We’ve been working on the defense dropping back behind and using the drops to out it to Higgins," Humes said. "She’s doing a fantastic job. She’s a senior, so we’re going to lose her next year. She’s going to be missed.”
After a hit late in the first half, Brockport was given a yellow card which set up London Martin for a shot that was saved by Holzschuh.
The second half kicked the physical defense to another level, with no shots on goal for the first 22 minutes and many fouls changed the possession of the ball due to a lot of physicality.
“We worked very hard on our one-on-ones and our ability to shield off the ball,” Shamp said “We worked very hard on defending and keeping Ava safe in that goal, so I feel like we did a very good job with that tonight.”
Momentum started to shift towards Brockport in the 58th minute after a free kick from Kendall Akers put them into scoring territory. Just one minute later, Akers fired a shot that slammed off the top post. After Brockport got the ball back, Audrey Camman fired a shot that hit off the left post.
Higgins was able to wrap the ball up after the second goal post save.
“That freaked me out,” Higgins said. “I thought it was going in at first, and thankfully it hit the post, so the post was on my side today. When I saw the other girl, I tried to go and attack and took out some space off the goal so she couldn’t get an angle on it.”
Right after Higgins sent the ball out, Batavia got their final breakaway. A deep pass set up Shamp with a one-on-one shot against Holzschuh. She sent the shot into the bottom right corner and scored the game winning goal for Batavia and her tenth of the season.
“My team and my defense got the ball up to me," Shamp said. "They work very hard to be able to give me the opportunities to score, they saw my opportunity and I took it, we ended up scoring and we got the one to nothing win.”
The Batavia Blue Devils now sit at 8-6 on the season with its next matchup on Tuesday, Oct. 15 against 10-1-1 Pittsford Mendon at 7 p.m. Brockport drops down to 3-8-1 as they stay at home for its matchup this Friday Oct. 11, against Churchville-Chili at 5 p.m.
Comments