Lilly Hooper focused, calmed her nerves, and fired on the net.
She found the opening she – and her Hahnville teammates – needed on Friday as the No. 15 seed Tigers defeated No. 18 Lafayette 1-0 at Tiger Stadium in the Division I non-select opening round playoff match between the teams.
Hahnville’s Meghan Oubre drew a foul in the box to set up a penalty kick for Hooper, who shot low and into the corner of the net to produce what would be the game-winning score with approximately 21 minutes left in the match.
“I was really nervous,” said Hooper, a junior. “I honestly thought I was going to shank it at first because my nerves were getting to me. But I took a deep breath and thought, ‘I need to make this for my team.’ I just shut everything out and shot it … I kind of just walked through it so not to overpower it. I was so excited – I couldn’t wait to hug my teammates.”
It was Hahnville’s sixth win in its past seven matches and it set up a round two matchup at St. Joseph’s Academy, the No. 2 seed in the bracket, today (Feb. 11) at 6 p.m.
Hooper’s goal was needed on a day of physical, playoff soccer where scoring chances were at a premium. Lafayette (11-11-2) focused its efforts on defense, looking to pick its spots on the counter attack, and while the Lady Tigers controlled the ball and generated scoring chances, there were precious few clean looks allowed by the Lions’ defense.
“(Hooper’s goal) was really a big moment, because we really had exhausted our options. Lafayette did a great job at packing the box, making sure there was no space for us offensively. Once we drew that penalty kick, it opened up the whole game. They were forced to go on the attack to try and tie the game,” said Hahnville head coach Edgar Fuentes. “We had a couple more chances, but we just couldn’t put them away.”
Two chances Hahnville (10-9-4) did have came early in the second half – an Olivia Lendle header off of a corner kick missed a bit high, while Lafayette cleared a chance in the box shortly after at the 34-minute mark.
There were some heated exchanges in this game, including one that proved costly to Lafayette when a Lions player was issued a red card and ejected. It left the Lions down a player for the final 30 minutes of play.
Later, Hooper got taken to the ground on a play that saw Lafayette earn a yellow card.
“It took a lot to keep my calm, but I knew if I get thrown out the game then I can’t help my team,” Hooper said.
Said Fuentes, “We talked about it (before the game) – when you’re the favorite, and you’re facing a packed box, it can be easy to lose your composure and get frustrated. I was proud of the girls. They kept their composure and eventually we were able to break through.”
That was a turn from a year ago, where Hahnville’s season ended in a round one game that saw the Tigers down a player due to a red card.
The Tigers’ defense was strong Friday, as it has been throughout the year. Goalkeeper Adelyn Bersuder was on top of her game and made several critical saves throughout the course of the win, including on a potential game-tying shot with less than two minutes to go.
“Adelyn really came up huge for us, with three big saves when we needed them the most,” said Fuentes. “In a game like this, all they need is one good breakaway and they can put one away on us, and we’re done. They had three chances like that and our goalkeeper came up big on those.”
Hahnville entered the postseason playing its best soccer.
“I think we’ve been passing and playing together over the last several matches,” Hooper said. “Before, we were playing for ourselves, and we realized that doesn’t work. We need to rely on each other.”
Hahnville is now once again moving on to round two.
“I’m gonna be honest, I’m up to here with not being able to break past the second round,” said Fuentes. “We’ve got a big challenge ahead of us. Our gameplan better be good.”
The Tigers matched up with St. Joseph’s just two weeks ago on Jan. 28, the latter earning a 4-1 win over Hahnville that day.
“We know what we have to work on. We just have to execute now … we schedule how we do because we want to see the toughest teams and what they have … there’s a lot of things we can improve upon (from that match). If we can do that, we’ve got everything ahead of us.”
