Sonja Fleming, perhaps more than anyone else, certainly didn't think her goal would be enough.
"No, not at all!" exclaimed the Bayfield senior midfielder, with a relieved laugh.
Especially not on the road, against a league team stoked by every chance to defend its new facility, which smelled like rubber from a tire store.
"I honestly just kicked it. Like, it was a horrible shot, but it just went over her fingers," Fleming said, of her 16th-minute surprise chip Tuesday over Alamosa goalie Sarah Berlinger from some 20 yards out. "So that was cool. I don't know; I just saw it and kicked it."
"But it's cool; I haven't scored since freshman year, so it felt good!"
And even better when it survived numerous late-match rushes by the Mean Moose and ultimately gained the Lady Wolverines a 1-0 road victory in 3A Southwestern League soccer action.
"I was screaming my head off as much as I could!" said Head Coach Jennifer Zelinski. "Not out of frustration, it was just frantic-I know they beat Ridgway and Telluride this past weekend, so they were sitting at the top of our league!"
"It was very intense," said goalee Kailee Millard. "I knew that the team had my back the whole time; our defense is great.I was able to get the ball out of the net and it went pretty good."
Unofficially, Alamosa (2-1, 2-1 SWL) outshot Bayfield (2-0, 1-0) 14 to 10, and put 10 on frame compared to the visitors' eight-and also did not allow one corner.
"We were nervous about this game.keeping ourselves pumped was really the key," said Fleming. "Definitely hoping the clock would speed up, that's for sure. It was really scary; we couldn't calm down enough to mark a man, but we ended up holding it.so I'm proud."
Up next, the Lady Wolverines will host Ridgway (0-2, 0-2) today at 4 p.m., and then Telluride tomorrow at 11 a.m. as well as Pagosa Springs on the 25th at 4 p.m.
