The Batesville Lady Bulldogs participated in the Plainfield Invitational on Saturday with Indianapolis Bishop Chatard, Danville High School, and Plainfield High School. The morning pairings were Batesville vs Chatard and Plainfield vs Danville.
Batesville and Chatard played in a very close matchup that saw action end to end throughout much of the first half. However, both teams were able to keep a clean sheet as the teams went into halftime tied at 0.
In the second half, Batesville took the early lead with 35:24 left in the half. Liz Heidlage was able to break free on the left side of the field and took the ball to the endline where she dropped the ball to a streaking Carlie Werner who finished with the outside of her foot. Chatard scored there equalizer with 27 minutes to play to make it 1-1. The half finished with the score tied so the teams played two 7-minute overtime periods.
In the first overtime period, Chatard took a 2-1 lead on a nice shot from distance. The teams switched sides after the first period of overtime and Batesville was running out of time to even the score. With 3:03 left in overtime, Caroline Kellerman played a great ball into the back post, the Chatard GK couldn’t handle the ball and Abbey Prickel was there to poke it into the back of the net to even the score at 2.
In the PK shootout the followed overtime, Batesville did a great job of stepping up and taking confident penalty kicks. Heidlage was first and buried her shot in the back of the net. Chatard’s first kicker sailed the ball over the crossbar. 1-0 Batesville. Werner was second for the Lady Bulldogs and she too placed a great shot into the net. Chatard’s second player hit the ball wide right, advantage Batesville 2-0. Ellie Cassidy stepped up and drilled their third consecutive PK for the Lady Bulldogs. After a Chatard make and a Batesville miss, it came down to a must make situation for Chatard. Their fourth kicker stepped up and hit their crossbar and Cerniglia was able to make thee save after the deflection.
“Chatard is a regional opponent and this was a regional type atmosphere today. We got some experience in overtime and a penalty shootout. I was happy with our girls today as they showed some grit after getting down 2-1 in overtime. We looked confident in our PK’s and I like our chances later in the postseason if we find ourselves in that position again.” Coach Laker commented on the game.
After a grueling 94 minutes in game 1, that Lady Bulldogs were forced to make a quick turnaround. Game 1 ended at 12:30 and game 2 started at 2:00. Plainfield won game 1 easily by a score of 3-0 and were well-rested for there championship matchup with the Lady Bulldogs.
In the first half, Plainfield controlled the possession and had several opportunities to score but the Batesville defense held strong. With 9:51 seconds left to play in the half, Plainfield was able to get free in the center of the Batesville defense and netted the games first goal. The teams went into half-time with as score of Plainfield 1 – Batesville 0.
The second half was all Plainfield. Batesville simply ran out of gas and Plainfield found the back of the net 5 more times to win the invitational’s championship game 6-0.
The Lady Bulldogs are back in action on Tuesday as they face off with another conference foe. Batesville will host South Dearborn with a JV kickoff planned for 5:30 with the varsity match to follow.