When Kody Rey was lost to injury in the first half on Tuesday near the Bayfield bench and practically right before BHS head coach Scott Keys’ eyes, it was the second key player he had lost.
A leg injury – likely of the season-ending sort – also befell sophomore Christiana Sutherlin during the Wolverines’ nonleague loss at Salida five days before.
Unbeknown to Key, however, misery had invited company. Later in Tuesday’s game the boss, his assistants, his roster and the team’s fans all anxiously waited as sophomore playmaker Sydney Rey – cousin of the aforementioned senior – lay facedown on Wolverine Country Stadium’s grass following a 50th-minute collision with Ignacio senior goalkeeper Trinity Strohl.
“It was a scary moment,” Key said. “We’ve obviously had the injury bug bite us pretty bad this season – we lost one last week, and we probably lost another today; injuries are definitely coming into play. But it’s next-man-up, and we’ve got people that are coming up. They know their roles and they come out and do them.”
Sydney Rey assisted on junior Preslie Wagner’s ice-breaking eighth-minute goal.
IHS senior Harmony Reynolds chipped a 29th-minute equalizer over McKenna Noonan’s hands and beneath the crossbar. Reynolds almost tied it earlier, but tagged the cross bar with a shot in the 15th minute.
BHS senior Abria Thayer, set up by sophomore Kambrie Byrd’s inadvertent redirect of a Rey crossing pass, then drilled a 43rd-minute shot off a Bobcat defender and past a helpless Strohl, who was tracking the ball’s original trajectory.
But with Sydney Rey soon sidelined, Ignacio senior Laci Brunson somehow forced through a short-side goal in the 56th, retying the score 2-2.
“Where we’ve kind of been lacking lately, is in not backing off. So today our main focus was to put pressure on, and don’t back off,” said IHS head coach Alisha Gullion. “And that was paying off for us; they were getting (the ball) up on (Bayfield’s) end, playing great defense – it definitely worked out well for us.”
But fortune ultimately favored Bayfield. Able to walk slowly off the field after being helped to her feet, Rey returned to action and netted what would hold up as the match-winning goal in the 62nd minute. Knowing Ignacio would refuse to quit, even though the Bobcats were showing signs of fatigue on a rare warm afternoon, Rey added an insurance score in the 73rd.
“You know, Sydney’s just as tough as they come. She absolutely wants to be out there,” Key said. “And in the second half I think we made the appropriate adjustments. We started winning a lot more balls … and putting a lot more shots on goal, and that’s always a good thing. Eventually they’re going to go in.”
Hunting for at least a third goal to match their team’s count in last season’s battle at BHS, the ’Cats nearly achieved that objective in the 78th. Noonan, however, came up big to deny Brunson at close range and effectively clinch a 4-2 victory for Bayfield.
“Last week, it’s snowing and we’re canceling games, and today, it’s hot and I’m worried about (players) passing out. It’s so ridiculous – we’re not used to this, you know?” Gullion said. “My girls … mid-second half, I could feel their energy drop; they were tired and the heat was getting to them. A couple asked to sub (out) just so they could come get some water.”
“But they played great,” she said. “I mean, we walked off like, ‘We almost had it, guys!’ So I think this, more than anything, is going to help boost their confidence – let them know anything can happen on this field. And we can make it happen.”
“We played well as a team,” Key said. “We’re still working on a few things, but for the most part … it was kind of nice having a little adversity; the girls did a real good job playing through it.”
Wagner, Thayer, and sophomore reserve Briauna Lawton-Chavez were credited with one assist each for BHS.
Facing 22 shots on goal, Strohl totaled 18 saves. Noonan stopped five of seven.
The ’Cats (0-5 overall, 0-2 2A Intermountain-South) also gained confidence for a scheduled rematch at 3A Montezuma-Cortez at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
Bayfield (4-1, 3-0 3A Southwestern), meanwhile, will travel to face Loveland Classical Academy at 4 p.m. Friday and then Thomas MacLaren School at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
“It’s always tough on a big, long, road trip like this,” Key said. “But we’ll … be prepared to play. Hopefully we’ll get there early and kind of let the girls ‘get off the bus’ and everything, and then we’ll go to work. The biggest thing is focusing on what we do. Playing our game, not their game.”
