Whitewater soccer defeats Pope

But Whitewater’s 4-4-2 formation, led by senior and captain Courtney Reddig, dominated the middle two-thirds of the field for most of the game. Pope’s attack, so productive in its previous two playoff games, didn’t even attempt a shot on goal until three minutes remained in regulation.

The Wildcats unofficially attempted 12, seven on goal. Pope coach Trey Daniel added another midfielder to his attack in the second half with his team down by two, but the Greyhounds couldn’t find the pass to unlock the defense or put anyone on several good crosses that skipped through the penalty box late in the game.

“They came out hard, played hard and won it in the first half,” Whitewater coach Randy Hayes said of his players. “They didn’t wait until the second half.”

But most of their early shots were taken from too far away to pose any real danger to Pope goalkeeper Samantha Piper. That changed when Van Gunst ran onto a through ball and slotted it past Piper, who had no play, into the bottom left corner to give Whitewater a 1-0 lead with 22 minutes remaining in the first half.

Pope’s best player, senior forward Ryann Davie, an Oregon signee, was neutralized by Van Gunst’s twin sister, Annika, in the first half and Autumn Mathews in the second after Annika left the game with a minor ankle injury just before the end of the half.

“They’ve got a great defense,” Daniel said. “They dominated the midfield.”

Whitewater added its second goal seven minutes later on a left-to-right low cross from Kenzie Winters to Teegan Van Gunst, standing in the middle of the penalty box. She coolly and purposefully re-directed the pass into the right corner to give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead.

Whitewater missed a chance with seven minutes remaining in the half for a third when Jenni Loveless’ free kick at the edge of the penalty box just skimmed past the right upright. Another shot went awry a minute later when a header on a corner kick popped the upright that Loveless missed.