Lady Yoe soccer hosts Cameron Invitational
The Lady Yoe soccer team hosted the Cameron Invitational over the weekend.
The tournament contained seven schools: Little River Academy, Austin IDEA, Florence, Navasota, Caldwell, Rockdale, and of course Cameron.
The Lady Yoe played two games on Thursday; the first game was against Austin IDEA. The Lady Yoe showed to be the more aggressive team in the first half by keeping the ball on IDEAs side.
“We have a lot of athleticism,” Coach Laura Dickson said of her team. “I have a lot of new players but they’re very athletic, so they’re learning the game still but they can make up for some of their skill with their speed and athleticism so were able to keep pressuring. I have an aggressive group of girls and they just want to go score so just kept trying to push.”
Cameron had a couple of chances to score early from Brandi Drake but was unable to capitalize with shots on goal. They went into halftime tied at zero.
Cameron came into the second half with the same intensity. However, so did IDEA.
IDEA started to pressure more as well, but Cameron was aided by passing errors and an offside call on IDEA. Eventually IDEA was able to get one past the Cameron goalie Savannah Nejtek.
Still the Lady Yoe kept at it. They got an opportunity for a free kick and Jule Preiser seized the opportunity and tied it back up at one apiece.
“Brandi got loose and then she ended up getting fouled,” Dickson said. “It started back with the defense clearing the ball up to her. We’ve been working on that. I told them that it was a whole team effort and though Jule was the one that scored, it started with the defense, clearing the ball out to Brandi, Brandi taking it up the side, then cutting into the middle, and then she got fouled. And Jule put it right on goal, it was a perfect shot. She had the wind so she had to be careful and adjust, but she put it in the right place and it kept us alive with that tie.”
And a tie is how this hard fought game would eventually end.
The second game Cameron played was against Florence. For the start of the first half the ball stayed near mid-field.
Eventually the Lady Yoe took some shots on goal that didn’t go in, including another free kick from Preiser. Nejtek made a great save as the Lady Buffaloes had a fast break chance and fell on the ball before Florence had a chance to seize the opportunity.
Later in the half, Cameron got a few corner kick chances. Florence also had their chance at a free kick but was unsuccessful.
The game was tied at zero going into halftime. The Lady Yoe came out strong with a quick shot on goal that was caught. Then with 20 minutes in the half Seally Smith was able to score off a kick from the left side. She kept up the pressure with another shot but sadly missed that one. Nejtek had some key saves near the end to seal the game and with a win 1-0 for Cameron.
“Savannah knew how hard her teammates had been playing throughout the match and knew her role,” Dickson said. “She did a great job. She also believed a big key was stopping the free and corner kicks and the next player up mentality. We talk all the time about giving total effort and tonight’s win was a result of that. With missing a couple of key players, others did a good job of stepping up to fill in the missing spots. This was definitely a total team win.”
On Friday, Cameron also played two games, the first game was against the Caldwell Lady Hornets. As well as they had played on defense, they had only scored two goals in those two games. So, they made that a focus.
“We are working on doing passing the ball more effectively and making runs up top to get some open shots,” Dickson said.
They took those practices to the game field as they dominated Caldwell 5-0. The Lady Yoe had three different players score: Luzenda Landa scored two goals, Celeste Cardona had two goals and Kristal Lara scored one for a very impressive offensive performance.
The second game for Cameron was against Little River Academy.
The Lady Yoe started off even with the Lady Bees, but Academy seemed to apply more pressure. Cameron avoided a scare as the Lady Bees had a chance to score on a breakaway, fortunately, the ball hit the top of the post.
Cameron later had some chances they also missed out on. The Lady Yoe’s first corner kick came at the eight-minute mark. Nejtek came up with some big saves.
The Lady Yoe had a chance at a goal up the middle and was unable to put it in due to the goalie snuffing it out. They also defended a free kick with 30 seconds in the half. The two teams went into halftime tied at zero.
Cameron picked up the pace to start the second half. The Lady Yoe defended a free kick as well. Nejtek saved a free kick from the 30-yard line, and survived another long kick that went over the net, also from around the 30-yard line. Nejtek sadly gave up a goal with under a minute left. And they would fall to the Lady Bees 1-0 in heartbreaking fashion.
With those four games completed, the Lady Yoe had 22 total points, which put them in fourth place and qualified them for the third-place game, which decides who takes third place in the tournament.
The third place game took place on Saturday morning against Florence, who they had previously beaten 1-0 on Thursday. Due to their starting goalie not able to be at the game, Dickson played two of her backup goalies, Sky Morningstar and Kyli Leftwich. Morningstar got the start in the first half.
“Savannah was at a power lifting meet so these are my two backups, so I just wanted to give them a chance to work in a varsity game and get some experience,” Dickson said. “They didn’t have a lot of opportunities to touch the ball, but when they did, they were ready and did what they needed to do.”
The Lady Yoe started off hot with a quick goal in the 27th minute from Celeste Cardona. The Lady Yoe continued the pressure, and they kept it on Florence’s side for most of the half. Midway, Florence started to put more pressure and started to take shots on goal but unable to capitalize. Brandi Drake had a chance at a fast break goal to regain the momentum but the shot was missed. However, Cameron continued to apply pressure on Florence and keep their goalie on edge.
“My midfield has done a really good job of putting pressure up,” Dickson said. “Not necessarily being defensive minded, they’ve kind of switched to the offensive mindset, and that’s really helped us to be able to distribute to our forwards and then also some of them even were able to take some shots because they made some good runs, and defensively we’re trying to work to keep pushing up and applying pressure. They hesitate sometimes because they need to stay back to defend, as the ball advances forward they’ve gotta keep pushing up so we can keep applying pressure and don’t leave gaps.”
Cameron went into the half 1-0. Leftwich was given the opportunity to start in the second half. Cameron continued to keep up the same intensity, with several shots on goal including a free kick that was unsuccessful. Cardona was able to score a goal on the fast break making it 2-0 for her second goal.
“Brandi just sent the ball up, and Celeste made a great run towards the ball and took a good shot,” Dickson said. “Their keeper was a little hesitant to come out and Celeste saw that positioning and was able to put the ball right where she needed to.”
Florence started to put some pressure near the seven-minute mark, including a free and corner kick which were both denied. The Lady Yoe would hold on to an exciting a 2-0 win.
With that important win, the Cameron Lady Yoe finished in third place in the Cameron soccer Invitational.