Girls soccer defeats Marian for first win at state in 13 years

The girls soccer team beat the Marian Crusaders 4-1 in the first round of the state tournament at Creighton’s Morrison Stadium on Tuesday, May 9. The win snapped a nine match losing streak for the Warriors in the state tournament. It was Westside’s first victory at state since 2010.

After being down 1-0 early in the second half, junior Sydney Hagen chased down the ball and shot it past Marian’s freshman goalie Hayden Blayney to tie the score at 1-1. Hagen was determined to change the momentum.

“Knowing Marian thought they won after they scored the first goal,” Hagen said. “We knew we had worked so hard all season to get where we are now and I wasn’t going to lose to Marian again after coming so far.” 

After Hagen’s goal, many offside calls were not going the Warrior’s way. Westside’s Addison Kasl did not want the officials to decide the outcome.

“The offsides calls were super frustrating because I didn’t think I was offsides. Every time I thought I held my run enough, they called me offsides which made me super mad.” Kasel said.

Even after a couple of  bad calls from the referees,  Kasel responded with not just one, but two goals making the score 3-1.

“I really just wanted to score for my team because we wanted that win so bad and it puts us closer to the state final.” Kasel said.

After assisting Kasel with her second goal, Nora Johnson outran Marian’s center back and blasted the ball into the goal giving the Warriors a three goal lead. This being her first year at Morrison stadium in a Westside uniform, Johnson was really excited about the game, especially it being against Marian.

“Everything happened so fast and it was a very exciting experience,” Johnson said.” We needed our vengeance on Marian and we had a point to prove that we were better. Right before the game started I saw all of the fans from Marian and I just thought that it was funny because there wasn’t a single guy in the group.”

After beating the Crusaders, Johnson is pumped up and ready to take on top-ranked Gretna this Friday in the state semifinals.

“I am excited to play Gretna again because I think we can win the game if we play our best.” Johnson said.

Hagan thinks Westside has a shot at breaking Gretna’s 43-match winning streak.

“I’m very confident going into the game against Gretna,” Hagen said. “As long as we stay marked in our defensive half of the field and make sure the forwards out work the Gretna defense I feel like we could shock the world and break their win streak.”

The Warriors enter the final four of the state tournament with a 13-5 record. Kasel is ready to show everyone that Westside has what it takes to beat Gretna.

“I am feeling very good going into the Gretna game because people think this won’t be a close game but our team disagrees. We know someone has to beat Gretna eventually and we know we can do it.” Kasel said.

The Warriors can earn a ticket to the state championship, when they take on the Gretna Dragons on Friday, May 12 at 5:30.