Anything worth fighting for has its decisive moments. So when the Carroll girls soccer team tried to close out the District 4-5A championship on March 11 against Keller, they needed a little good fortune.
Meghan Murphy’s header off a corner kick found the back of the net with time running out in regulation, and it turned out to be enough. Carroll (22-2, 11-1) won 1-0 and secured its fourth district championship under coach Matt Colvin.Of course, Keller increased the pressure to try and get a good look. However, the Lady Indians never could get the look they wanted.“You always talk about how to work through stressful situations during our training sessions,” Colvin said. “We try to put our teams in stressful situations so they can handle just about anything. They mentally handled that.”Of course, Carroll’s athletic programs in general pride themselves on being competitive and not letting up in any situation. That’s reflected in the numerous state championships throughout the history of the school.The Lady Dragons used the rest of last week to refresh and prepare for the final week of the regular season that began Tuesday at Keller Fossil Ridge. Essentially, Carroll had nothing to play for because it wrapped up the top seed. However, that wasn’t the approach Colvin wanted to use.“What we need to make sure we do is maintain our focus,” Colvin said. “We have to make sure our intensity is the same. I don’t think we’re going to have any issues doing that.”Injuries negated by depthIf you’re a normal girls soccer team, it would be devastating to have six injured starters and three out for the year. If you’re Carroll, you’re pretty blessed.In his 12 seasons running the program, Colvin has never seen a season where his program has been so ravaged by season-ending or lengthy injuries.To review, junior defender Alya Shams tore an ACL before the season and was lost for season. Four weeks ago, sophomore left fullback Meredith Havens tore the PCL in her knee and met the same fate. Fullback Jordan Connors is out with a torn ACL.Then junior forward Payton Gruenewald suffered a hairline fracture in her right foot about two weeks ago and is out. Sophomore Kaylon McKelvey has tried to play through a stress fracture in her right foot and still isn’t right. Both McKelvey and Gruenewald are in walking boots. There is hope that both of them will be able to return at some point during the playoffs.Oh, and senior forward Sophie Groph, who leads the team with 23 goals, is trying to play through a tweaked LCL.Are you kidding?Well, Carroll is a hotbed for soccer. Plus, this soccer team has 16 seniors. So experience blended with some talented underclassmen had maintained the success.“Hopefully, we all learn about how to fight through it and stick together,” Colvin said. “We have a lot of good players who have just stepped up.’’Briefly…This program is closing down on a single-season school record for wins. If the Lady Dragons win their final two games of the regular season and their bi-district and area playoff games, they will be at 26. That would break the record of 25 set in 2012.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
