D.C. Everest girls soccer rallies past SPASH

STEVENS POINT - Ten minutes into its Wisconsin Valley Conference match Tuesday night, the third-ranked D.C. Everest girls soccer team found itself in some pretty unfamiliar territory.

Justice Menge put on a show for Stevens Point Area Senior High during that span. First the Winona State signee scored on a free kick and then Menge sent a cross to Abby Gemza, who scored on a header.

Before all the spectators had settled in the Scaffidi Field scoreboard read: SPASH 2, D.C. Everest 0.

Instead of entering into panic mode, Evergreens coach Lucas Kollross had a simple message for his players. While gesturing with his hands to stay calm, he told them, “We’re all right.”

Boy was that the truth. Bri Widmer netted a pair of goals and Krista Koenig chimed in with a goal and an assist as D.C. Everest scored five unanswered goals to earn a convincing 5-2 Valley win.

“Not the way we wanted to start, but I was please with the way we rebounded from that, it just shows the character of this team,” Kollross said. “They made two really nice plays on free kicks. It happens.

“In the past two years we’ve been down a handful, maybe six times, every time we’ve battled back. We know we have a team that can score a lot of goals. You just have to make sure you keep an even keel.”

SPASH couldn’t have asked for a better start in its bid to shake things up in the conference.

Menge had the Panthers entertaining thoughts of an upset when she drilled a free kick just outside the box into the far netting just 3:59 into the match.

Five minutes later, “Juice” as she’s known took another free kick out on the right wing and curved a ball in to Gemza, who jumped over a defender and headed the ball home.

“We lucked out. We got two free kicks that found the net,” SPASH coach Don Peel said.

Suddenly, SPASH had every reason to believe this was its night to shock the WVC soccer world.

The only problem was there was more than 80 minutes left in the match and the skilled and talented Evergreens had plenty of time to mount a comeback with all the firepower at their disposal.

Add in the young Panthers might not quite be ready to handle prosperity, however, and the talented and skilled Evergreens had a lot to do with that.

Still, seeing an early two-goal lead evaporate before halftime is hard to swallow.

“We’re good with teams that are equal to us or less, and we just don’t have the experience yet to play the bigger teams,” Peel said.

“Lucas has a good team, no doubt about it. Like he said there, ‘You put a scare into us, two down.’ They came back. ‘Did I think they’d score? Yeah I really did.’ I was hoping it would be the second half.”

DCE didn’t feel like waiting that long.

Keta Oettinger got the Evergreens started on the comeback trail at 18:25 with a beautiful shot from the right wing and Koenig struck five minutes later off cross from Lauren Rohr to knot the score.

Widmer would cap a three-goal barrage in a span of 20 minutes by sending home a free kick from 25 yards out at 39:15 and in a blink of an eye DCE entered the break with 3-2 lead.

“When they had their first two goals, I think we panicked a little,” Koenig said. “As a team, we’ve always been known as a team to get out of that slump we’ve gone into, and just turn our attitudes around. We’re a very positive team, so we knew we were able to turn it around and make the most out of it.”

Kaylee Heil supplied more of a cushion with a sweet shot from outside the box off a pass from Koenig early in the second half.

Just in case the outcome was in doubt Widmer would add her second goal to put the finishing touches on an impressive comeback win to send DCE to 6-0-0 in the WVC.

The chance to put some distance between itself and the rest of the conference wasn’t loss on the Evergreens.

“It was super important, this was a big game for us,” Koenig said. “To be able to pull it off it meant a lot for the team and for our conference ranking.”

First half: 1. SPASH, Justice Menge, 3:59; 2. SPASH, Abby Gemza (Menge), 9:10; 3. DCE, Keta Oettinger, 18:25; 4. DCE, Krista Koenig (Kendra Wolfgram), 23:46; 5. DCE, Bri Widmer, 39:15.

Second half: 6. DCE, Kaylee Heil (Koenig), 59:04; 7. DCE, Widmer (Katie Lukasik), 85:48.

Saves: D.C. Everest (Kayla Rogan) 3, SPASH (Shayna Molski) 8.

Records: D.C. Everest 9-0-2, 6-0-0 WVC; SPASH 9-2-0, 5-2-0 WVC.

Scott A. Williams can be reached at 715-345-2282, or on email at ssswilliam@stevenspoint.gannett.com. Find him on Twitter as @SPJScottWill