West Plains Zizzer Soccer

For only the second time in 21 meetings, the West Plains Lady Zizzer Soccer Team defeated the Poplar Bluff Lady Mules on a rain soaked Tuesday Evening at the WPHS Soccer Field. The teams played through a pretty constant rain in what proved to be a very enjoyable match. Both teams are fairly young, but showed some aggressiveness in their attacks. There were a few times when players slipped and fell and seeral balls that skipped past players, but for the most part, the weather wasn’t a huge factor.

Although Poplar Bluff controlled the play early, Michelle Esterle was able to break into the box around the 15th minute. As she went toward goal, she was tripped up by a Poplar Bluff player and a Penalty Kick was awarded. Sophomore Mollie Plocher scored the peanlty for a 1-0 lead. As the half went on the Lady Zizzers began to generate more attacks as the momentum began to swing.

The Lady Mules would fight back. In the 34th minute a shot (Don’t have the number of the girl who scored it) just inside the far post from about 12 yards out on the right side tied the game at 1-1. That’s how the half would end.

The second half was more of the same. Both teams were able to create some opportunities, but couldn’t capitalize. Then in the 71st minute, Plocher took the ball herself and beat two defenders before sliding a left footed shot toward the far post just past the diving keeper. West Plains was able to hold off the late charge by Poplar Bluff and get the 2-1 win.

This was by far the best performance of the young season for West Plains. For the first time we had a pretty consistent effort from start to finish. Great job girls, all the way around!! Defensively our backs and midfielders did a better job of keeping their marks and covering for each other when we made mistakes. We were much more aggressive going to balls and getting our heads on balls.

With the win, West Plains evens their record at 3-3-0 on the season. Not sure what Poplar Bluff’s record is. Next up for the Varsity is the Neosho Tournament Friday and Saturday. West Plains will play Parkview in the First Round at 6:30pm on Friday.

In JV action before the Varsity, Poplar Bluff won 5-0. All 5 goals were scored in the first half. The match was delayed at halftime for some lightning. The second half was shortened to just 20 minutes so we could make sure to get the Varsity game completed. The Lady Zizzer JV record drops to 2-2-0 on the season.

Note: SGFsoccer.com has pictures from last night’s game against Greenwood. Be sure to check them out.

West Plains traveled to Springfield on Tuesday afternoon to face the Greenwood Lady Bluejays in their first ever girls soccer match. West Plains struck first in the 9th minute as Sophomore Mollie Plocher scored her first High School Goal on an Assist from Michelle Esterle.

Despite shots coming from both teams (Greenwood 12 Shots - 5 On Goal, West Plains 13 Shots - 8 On Goal), the score would stay 1-0 until the 78th minute. Freshman Katie Shannon took the ball from a Greenwood player and then fired a shot from outside the 18 yard box for her first High School Goal and a 2-0 Lady Zizzer lead. The West Plains defense and goalkeeper Jamie Brassfield kept the Lady Bluejays off the board for their first shutout of the season. West Plains improves to 2-3-0 on the season, while Greenwood drops to 0-1-0.

The teams could meet again at the Neosho Tournament this weekend or during Class 1 District 12 action in May at Willard.

In JV action prior to the Varsity game, West Plains edged Greenwood 2-1. Emma Ray got the Lady Zizzers on the board in the 7th minute. Lily Roberts got the game-winner in the 18th minute of the second half. West Plains improves to 2-1 on the season.

Sorry there is not more detail. I missed the games due to Family Obligations. Next up Tuesday March 27 at home against Poplar Bluff. JV starts at 4:30pm.

On a beautiful afternoon in Harrison, AR, the West Plains Lady Zizzers took on the Harrison Lady Goblins at the new First National Bank Soccer Complex. The West Plains Lady Zizzers got off to a slow start. Harrison put plenty of pressure on the West Plains defense, but came up empty on each attempt in the first half.

In the second half, West Plains came out much stronger and made it a better match. There would be no scoring until the 70 minute of the match. A failed clearance attempt found an open Lady Goblin in the box. Jenny Thompson put the ball into the far upper corner for a 1-0 Harrison lead.

The Lady Zizzers responded quickly by earning a corner kick in the 72nd minute. Mollie Plocher’s kick found Michelle Esterle, who headed the ball in under the crossbar to draw the Lady Zizzers level, 1-1. Harrison took the lead a minute later when Nikki Roberts found herself alone about 15 yards from goal. Her shot hit the inside of the far post and bounced in for a goal. That’s the way the match would. With the victory, Harrison improves to 4-7-2 on the season and West Plains drops to 1-3-0.

Next up for West Plains will be games against Springfield Greenwood on Monday at the Cooper Complex in Springfield. The first game begins at 4:00pm. This will be the first ever game for the brand new Greenwood Lady Bluejays soccer program.

Check out goldengoblins.com for their take on the game. goldengoblins.com is a fansite that covers events involving Harrison High School and Harrison Junior High School.

Check out the Lady Zizzer Soccer Classic Info link to see how the teams coming to the tournament are doing so far. Listed is each teams record and results as best as I could find through 3-22-07.

On Thursday evening, the Nixa Lady Eagles kept Jamie Brassfield (pictured - click on the picture to see all the photos from the Varsity and JV games. The pictures were taken by Randy Hunt) busy. In defeating the Lady Zizzers 4-0, Nixa outshot West Plains 21(14 On Goal) to 4 (2 On Goal). Nixa put plenty of pressure on the Lady Zizzer defense. The defense bent , but held strong until the 39th minute of the game when Jo Pavlowsky picked up a failed clearance attempt and put the ball into the far upper corner of the goal. Nixa 1, West Plains 0. That’s how the first half would end.

In the second half, West Plains came out a little more aggressively and started challenging more balls in the air. However the Lady Eagles were able to break through West Plains Defense in the 44th minute and Stephanie Allen was able to find the back of the net for a 2-0 Nixa lead. The Lady Zizzers didn’t give up. The effort level seemed to rise and both teams battled hard. Although West Plains was able to move the ball at times, Nixa limited the scoring opportunities for the Zizzers as Senior Defender Ashley Kirkpatrick, gobbled up most everything that came her way.

In the 68th minute, Nixa took a corner kick that went into the 18 yard box and settled on the ground. Nixa’s Jacklyn Finley came through and blasted a shot in from 10 yards out. Nixa 3, West Plains 0. Two minutes later Senior jessie Yach finished the scoring with a well placed ball to Jamie Brassfield’s left. Up to that point, the girls (Mollie Plocher, Beth Kittle, and Katie Shannon and others that helped when needed) had done a good job of defending the Lady Eagles top offensive threat. Despite the score, the Lady Zizzers continued to challenge as Katie Shannon, Michelle Esterle, and Rachel Skelly pushed forward on several occassions, but they couldn’t cut into the Lady Eagles lead.

The girls took some positive steps in the game against Nixa. We can keep our heads up and take some positives into tomorrows practice and then into Saturday’s match with the Harrison Lady Goblins. Nixa improves to 2-1 on the season while West Plains drops to 1-2.

In JV action, Nixa won 3-1 . West Plains got on the board first in the 13th minute when Freshman Amy Armstrong took the ball in, beating 2 defenders and then feeding the ball to Megan Lowe a goal and a 1-0 West Plains lead. Nixa would battle back to tie the game in the 29th minute off a nicely played free kick. In the 39th minute, Nixa pulled ahead 2-1 after beating the Lady Zizzer defense. In the 56th minute, Nixa stretched their lead to 3-1 as they again broke down the West Plains defense.

The JV will be back in action again on Monday when the JV and Varsity travel to Springfield to take on the Greenwood Lady Bluejays in what I believe is the first game in their programs history.

The West Plains Lady Zizzer Varsity soccer team picked up their first win of the season in an Ozark Conference match against the Parkview Lady Vikings on Tuesday evening.

In a game that was moved to the turf at JFK Stadium due to the rain, Parkview got on the board first. In the 11th minute of the first half, Freshman Jessica Maerz fired a shot from 10 yards out after beating the Left Side of the Lady Zizzer defense. The shot went off the hands of Keeper Jamie Brassfield and into the net for a 1-0 Lady Vikings lead. Brassfield would make one great save and would come out to smother a few more chances as the Lady Zizzers stayed close.

In the 33rd minute, Junior Michelle Esterle took the ball in a shot from 8 yards out to tie the game at 1-1. The second half saw both teams create opportunities that they couldn’t finish off. Finally in the 29th minute of the second half, Sophomore Mollie Plocher played a long ball that rolled past the Parkview defense. Freshman Rachel Skelly ran it down, took a touch around the onrushing Parkview Keeper, and touched the ball into the net for what would be the Game Winner. Parkview put some more pressure on in the final minutes, but were unable to tie game. The Win evens the Lady Zizzer record at 1-1. They are now 1-0-0 in Ozark Conference play. Parkview drops to 0-1 and 0-1 in OC play. Both teams were missing a couple of players and will face each other again on Friday, March 30 at the Neosho Tournament at 6:30pm.

In JV action, West Plains won 2-0 making their record 1-0 on the season. The first Lady Zizzer goal came at the 15 minute mark of the first half as Freshman Megan Lowe dribbled into the box and pushed a ball past the Parkview Keeper for a 1-0 lead. In the second half, Freshman Courtney Weaver scored in the 17th minute to make the score 2-0.

Both teams did a good job. A good first game for the JV and some definite improvement for the Varsity. Next up, Nixa at home Thursday, JV starts at 5:00pm.

The Lady Zizzers took on the Mountain Home, AR Lady Bombers on Monday night in their opening game of the season. West Plains wasted little time in getting on the scoreboard. At about the 8 minute mark of the first half, Lady Zizzer Sophomore, Beth Kittle, dribbled into the left side of the 18 yard box, cut to her right and took a shot to the keeper’s right for a goal just as she was hit by a Mountain Home defender who was trying to block the shot.

The lead was short lived as Mountain Home’s Sydney Thomas broke through the Zizzer defense and slipped one past Lady Zizzer Keeper Jamie Brassfield, to tie the game at about the 15 minute mark.

Brassfield would make several nice diving saves and came out and smothered a few other balls as Mountain Home attacked early.

After the first 20-25 minutes the Lady Zizzers began to settle in a little bit and started to generate more pressure on Mountain Home’s defense. Despite creating some opportunities, the Lady Zizzers didn’t find the back of the net.

A bad Zizzer clearance and a little luck gave the bombers a 2-1 advantage. With about 10 minutes left in the first half, a West Plains clearance from the corner went right to Sydney Thomas in the middle of the field. After taking a touch to settle the ball, the Thomas floated a high ball in on goal from about 40 yards out. The ball went just over the outstreched hands of Lady Zizzer Keeper Jamie Brassfield and just under the crossbar.

The young West Plains team was little hesitant to shoot at times when opportunities presented themselves. This helped keep the game at 2-1 at halftime. The girls haven’t quite developed the aggressive attacking instinct and confidence level in their shooting abilities to capitalize on their chances just yet. We will be working on that and hope to see some improvement as the season progresses.

About midway through the second half, West Plains wase called for tripping the Bombers #1 just outside the 18 yard box on the right side of the field. Megan Powell put the freekick between the moving Lady Zizzer wall and the near post for a 3-1 lead. West Plains had a few more scoring opportunities, but couldn’t cut the Mountain Home lead.

It was definitely a game where we learned some things. We had several players getting their first taste of High School Soccer and experimented with people in different places. It was nice to play against somebody other than ourselves so we can really see where we can make improvements and what we are doing well. Not a bad game considering it was our first of the season and Mountain Home’s tenth of the year. The Lady Bombers improved to 4-6-0 and were coming off a 2nd Place finish at the Harrison, AR Tournament this past weekend. The Lady Zizzers drop to 0-1-0 on the season. West Plains will open Ozark Conference play tomorrow as they travel to Springfield to take on the Parkview Lady Vikings. The Varsity will play first at 4:00pm with the JV game to follow.

It was nice to see a lot of the Boys Soccer Team out in the stands tonight, loudly cheering the girls on. Thanks for the support guys.

Good work ladies!

I received directions for Saturday’s Varsity Only game at Harrison, AR. They have a new field since we were there two years ago.

202 Old Stone Wall Road…

follow 65/412 north, turn left on Business 65 just south of Harrison (gas station Kum N’ Go), follow down a long hill and turn left just before the bridge over lake Harrison, turn left again at the next stop sign (Hwy 7 South (Pine Street). Follow a couple blocks and turn left on Old Stone Wall Road, it runs adjacent to our bus garage. You will see the complex once you turn.

Tuesday evening, March 13, 2007, The Lady Zizzer’s held an intrasquad scrimmage. It was a good opportunity for the girls to put on some uniforms and get into a game-like situation. The photo above is of Freshman Katie Shannon taking a penalty kick. The photo was taken by Randy Hunt. You can vist the flickr site with all his pictures by clicking on the picture or using the Zizzer Soccer Photos link in the right hand column.

The field is set for the 2007 Parkview Boys Soccer Tournament. Each school will play three games—one on Friday evening and two on Saturday. The dates of the tournament are September 14 & 15, 2007. Here are the participating schools:

Parkview (host)
Carthage
Fulton
Hannibal
Kearney
Lebanon
Neosho
West Plains

Hannibal and Kearney are new additions to the Tournament and should make the event even more competitive. I think this should be the strongest group of teams since we have bee participating in the tournament.