On a cool Thursday evening, the Joplin Lady Eagles came to town. The two teams met for the second time in less than a week. The Eagles defeated the Lady Zizzers 2-0 in the semifinals of the Neosho Tournament last Saturday in a game that wasn’t as close as the score. This time the Lady Zizzers were more focused on the task at hand.
The teams came out and battled hard. Although Joplin had more shots, most of them were from longer range and posed little trouble for Lady Zizzer Keeper Jamie Brassfield. Brassfield did make 3 great saves from close range, tipping one over the crossbar and grabbing the other two. West Plains was able to create a few scoring chances, but weren’t able to put anything in the net.
The game remained scoreless for the first 70 minutes and it looked like it could be headed to overtime. Then in the 71st minute Joplin earned a corner kick. The kick went into the 18yard box where Lady Zizzer Sweeper, Mollie Plocher tried to clear the ball out. Plocher’s clearance attempt hit an onrushing Lauren Copple (Joplin player) in the chest and went into the goal for a 1-0 Joplin lead. West Plains continued to fight, but couldn’t tie the score before the final whistle blew.
The Lady Zizzer’s performance on Thursday night was a much better performance than we had against Joplin last Saturday. All the players should be proud of their efforts from Forwards: Rachel Skelly and Michelle Esterle, Midfielders: Katie Shannon, Kelly Smith, Ashlie Conley, Emma Ray, Kristin Herron, and Amy Armstrong, Backs: Tiffany Vincent, Mollie Plocher, Audi Morrison, Sam Murray, and Ashley Martin, and Goalkeeper Jamie Brassfield. Good work Ladies! Enjoy the 3-day Holiday Weekend. West Plains record falls to 4-8-0 and 1-2-0 in the Ozark Conference. Next up are games at Home on Tuesday against Glendale.
In JV action, Joplin defeated West Plains 5-0. Joplin scored on a penalty kick in te 5th minute after West Plains was called for a handball in the 18 yard box. Joplin added another goal in the 13th minute after a cross to the far post was tapped in. In the 23rd minute, Joplin scored again from 10 yards out. The Lady Eagles added two more goals in the 26th and 34th minutes.
West Plains tightened up the defense in the second half and managed to keep Joplin from adding to their lead. The Lady Zizzers missed a chance to cut the lead when Megan Lowe missed a Penalty Kick attempt. The West Plains JV record falls to 2-5-0 on the season.
