Blended as One: Shreveport United girls persevere for national title
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
When it came to securing the team’s lodging for the U.S. Youth Soccer Association’s national tournament in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Shreveport United U18-19 girls coach Mark Matlock took the reins on the potential for an 11-day stay.
He’d previously brought teams after winning state championships, some that had made waves at regionals and advanced to a national semifinal at the U.S. Club level.
Since winning the Louisiana State Association’s Division I State Cup on March 29 at Burbank Soccer Complex in Baton Rouge, Matlock’s team had to deal with a shift in personnel over the four months leading up to the national tournament.
Three graduating seniors, who signed scholarships, had to report to college, while five others chose not to play following the team’s final match of the spring.
That left Matlock, coaching in his 24th season at the club level, trying to arrange a puzzle that would fill the necessary voids created by the loss of eight players, yet remain competitive enough to make a push at the national level where they remained hopeful of a breakthrough experience.
Matlock made hotel reservations for three nights and when his team broke bracket, Shreveport wound up having to move to several different hotels during its memorable run to a national championship, defeating Twin Falls (ID.) Soccer Club, 3-1, on July 23 at Richard Siegel Park.
“To be the first team from our club and the first from Louisiana to win a U.S. Youth national championship was awesome,” said Matlock, who has also coached at Loyola College Prep for 14 years and 24 overall in the Shreveport area along with stops at Captain Shreve, Caddo Magnet and Byrd (JV boys coach). It was a fun week.”
Shreveport stormed through bracket play with three wins and a goal differential of plus-6. The team from Caddo Bossier Soccer Association (CABOSA) didn’t let up in the knockout stage, defeating Cook Inlet Soccer Club (AK.) in the quarterfinals, 3-0, Little Rock (AR.), 3-0, in the semifinals followed by a win over Twin Falls in the final.
“We’ve grown as a team and our friendships have also grown really strong,” said Shreveport goalie Peyton Lewis of Loyola. “We’ve become like family, like sisters almost. We’ve played so many games. We became a family on and off the field. It was a great experience getting to finish out like this. I kept telling the girls to go out with a bang, to finish strong for our seniors.”
Shreveport also captured the tournament’s top three individual awards with guest player Stella Zippert of Dominican in New Orleans winning the ‘Golden Boot’ on the strength of her eight goals. Three shutouts from Lewis, who is headed to East Texas Baptist University, made her the logical choice for the ‘Gold Glove’ award where she allowed three goals in six matches.
Eighth-grader Gabi Hamic of Providence Classical Academy in Bossier, was the ‘Gold Ball’ winner, or MVP with six goals and six assists.
“We kind of had to adapt a bit, added some younger girls from our club to come in and help,” Matlock said. “We recruited three guest players, and they really came in and helped us tremendously.
“Our roster stayed pretty consistent, they’re all pretty much the focal players at their high schools,” Matlock said. “It’s been a good group. They train really hard which is one thing that separates them from other teams. They don’t like to lose in anything. They don’t like to lose in practice to each other. They don’t like to lose to other teams. They get along well but it’sbusiness.”
Lewis was among the constants from previous teams that helped Shreveport United to its fourth state championship in five years, overcoming the disappoint of past regional setbacks and a loss in the U.S. Club national semifinals two years ago.
“We wanted to win this,” she said. “We wanted to make history in our club and Louisiana. We wanted to do something that our club had never done before.”
Shreveport United went 25-2 during the regular season and was 6-1 in league play. They’ve been so strong over the past five years, that Shreveport has only lost one or two matches in league play, Matlock said.
They defeated host Baton Rouge Soccer Association in the semifinals, 5-2, and outlasted La. Force Sky Blue of Gonzales, 3-1, in the final.
One of the team’s driving forces was striker Isabella Baltov, the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year, who enjoyed a spectacular senior season at Caddo Magnet with 54 goals and 17 assists, and 174 goals and 74 assists to complete her terrific career.
However, Baltov was one of three signees who reported to college (McNeese State), along with outside back Karsyn Best of Benton (Ouachita Baptist) and guest player Chloe Burton, a central defender from Ben Franklin, she departed for the University of Colorado Springs.
The complexion of the team changed even more when seniors Ryleigh Cran of Captain Shreve, Mya Crawford of Byrd, junior Sarah Katherine Murrell of Byrd, and Captain Shreve senior Maddie Pennell, a Northeast Oklahoma signee, weren’t able to continue playing following the State Cup.
“We picked up a couple of guest players, and it helped us in the attack,” Lewis said. “We had the hardest time shooting and finishing in the (final) third. We had speed up top. We could just send balls over to them and they could run and go shoot.”
Shreveport’s chemistry with its lineup would be severely tested. Through play at the State Cup, they had 15 players among its core group with that being shaved in half by the time they reached nationals.
Matlock was able to bring up freshman winger Gabi Hamic, the younger sister of senior winger Ali Hamic, and center midfielder Rylie Stuart of Loyola.
They joined forces with Zippert, the Division I Offensive MVP at Dominican, Mandeville senior striker Alicia Ashley (Southern Wesleyan signee), Southside senior center defender Marley Barnhill (University of Mobile signee) and Airline junior center defender Emma Hahn.
Matlock said when he brought the team to Murfreesboro the day before starting group play, it was the first time they had practiced together.
“The younger kids had come some to practice with us a few times,” he said. “The first practice was about acclimation, what their strengths were, and we figured some things out in the first two games. When we got into the knockout rounds it was pretty clear what the style was going to be and how we would approach things. They’re such high-level players and they pick up things pretty quick.”
Ashley’s time with her new team didn’t last long. An ACL injury in the team’s first game sidelined her for the remainder of the tournament and she returned home.
Junior central defender Analeigh Turner of Loyola, who was part of the team’s successful showing during group play, returned home after a nagging stomach bug that she couldn’t shake.
Barnhill, a member of La. Krewe Rush in the Women’s Professional Soccer League, moved to Turner’s vacated spot to help anchor Shreveport’s back line.
“Analeigh had helped me to control that group,” Lewis said of the back line. “Marley had to step in and take that spot. We played good together. I expected there to be iffy spots and there weren’t many in the back. I was able to make a couple of good saves against some amazing teams.”
Matlock said it was refreshing to watch his team get out of the starter’s block fast.
“It’s not our normal,” he said. “We’ve had notoriously slow starts, and end up down a goal, and once we kind of figure out what’s going on, we make a comeback and will win at the end. It was a little more relaxing for me as a coach to not be fighting from behind all the of the time. They kind of started well every game from a chances created standpoint. If we had actually finished the majority of our chances, we would have won by more goals than we did.”
Shreveport imposed its will in group play with a pair of shutouts from Lewis and an offense that kept the team in an advantageous position throughout.
Despite the loss of Ashley, and Turner following group play, Shreveport never wavered in breaking bracket.
“It felt like they were supposed to be there and everyone had a certain job and they were doing that job,” Lewis said.
Zippert scored three goals – all assisted by Stuart – and Gabi Hamic added a fourth goal – assisted by Flowers – to repel one of the more difficult teams in Cook Inlet in the quarterfinals.
“We were up 1-0 with them having a lot of good chances,” Matlock said. “They were a very good possession team. They started pushing numbers and we scored some goals to kind of put it away. They were a talented team.”
Zippert continued her red-hot play in the semifinal with two goals on assists from Flowers and junior Eden Whiteman who joined the team following the losses of Ashley and Turner. Flowers later added a goal, sending the team to the final after a 3-0 win over Little Rock.
One element working in Shreveport’s favor was the hot, humid conditions that sent temperatures soaring above 90 degrees.
Conversely, their opposition from Alaska, Arkansas and eventually Idaho, weren’t as immune to the environment.
“The teams from Pennsylvania, Montana, Alaska and Idaho struggled with the conditions,” Matlock said. “They had a lot more subs than us. It was in the 90s and our girls were like, ‘This isn’t bad.’ From a fitness standpoint and dealing with the conditions, we were a little more prepared.
“We’ve had a smaller roster for the last several years because they like that,” Matlock said. “Our girls don’t like to sub. Their fitness was good and they could deal with the heat. After bracket play you had a day off and a day off before the final. That helped with recovery.”
Shreveport and Twin Falls were tied 1-1 at halftime when Gabi Hamic provided the game-winning goal in the 70th minute.
She tracked down a long ball and sent a left-footed shot between two defenders that sailed over the goalie’s head and into the right corner of the goal.
“That was her non-dominant foot,” Matlock said of Hamic’s shot. “It was a great finish, and she is such a technically great player in tight spaces. I’m excited to see what she continues to do as she gets older. She’s just a special talent.”
Lewis sensed her team’s confidence rise after her team’s second goal, and the championship was on the horizon.
“It was joy after the second goal,” she said. “We knew that we could get it. That team started to die down a little bit, and we just kept sending balls to Stella’s side so she could keep running.”
Junior winger Baleigh Ware of Benton added the final layer that led to Shreveport’s celebration.
She tracked down a long ball, lost possession to a Twin Falls defender, but had the presence of mind to steal a poor backward pass, gained possession ahead of a charging goalie outside of the box, and before a collision, unloaded her opportunity for the final goal in the final seven minutes of play.
“She’s one of the more aggressive and physical players,” Matlock said. “That play is exactly what she is as a player which is a hustle play. She’s going to put you under pressure and make it difficult for defenders. She did a great job of reading that back pass and getting there before the goalkeeper. The big thing was being brave in the finish. She went through the keeper, and she takes a couple of those a game and gets up every time.”
Matlock praised the play of his three center midfielders – Stuart, Parkway’s Sofia Bright and Flowers – for their stamina in playing all 90 minutes in each of the team’s six games.
Zippert came as good as advertised, providing a spark for Shreveport’s offense that averaged three goals a game.
“She’s a really dynamic center forward with a lot of pace,” Matlock said of Zippert, who helped Dominican to a state runner-up finish in Division I. “After we got on the same page with where she liked the ball, we were able to set her up with a lot of goals.”
Ware’s final goal helped to engrave Shreveport’s name on the national championship trophy. After so much success at the state level and getting a look at what it took to advance past the regional and national level, Shreveport was the last team standing when the final whistle was blown.
Lewis, a former winger, had been a part of CABOSA since she was 9, becoming teammates with many of the same players she celebrated with following the national title victory.
A dogpile never felt so good, she said.
“We’ve been together for as long as I can remember,” said Lewis, the West All-Star MVP in the LHSCA All-Star game on March 7 at Teurlings Catholic in Lafayette. “It was amazing. We made history. We went out with a big bang. I was so excited.”
Shreveport became a blended team that rejoiced as one.
Nearly two weeks together in Tennessee transformed the team into a national champion, a group unified by one common goal.
“A little bit of relief at first,” Matlock said of his initial thoughts after the final whistle. “I’m just so happy for the girls. They had put so much into their overall development and they did it on the last stage, the last opportunity as a group. We’ll have some that will come back next year.
“I was thinking that’s kind of the final time together for those girls, it was kind of awesome to see and watching their celebration,” Matlock said. “Having them all run out together and hug each other, to watch them go through the final closing ceremony and be able to lift that trophy on stage, was something I’ll never forget.”