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Durant beats Gaither 1-0 in a defensive struggle between undefeated teams.
By TERRY JONES
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 25, 2002
DURANT -- Gaither and Durant were locked in a defensive battle Thursday for the conference championship.
The only goal in the game came on an early penalty kick.
Unfortunately for the Cowboys, the Cougars were the ones who walked away with the 1-0 win and conference title.
Both teams entered the game undefeated.
On a Durant breakaway in the first two minutes, Gaither goalkeeper Michelle Kmiotek was caught with an attacker and the ball between herself and the open net. In stopping the goal, the Cowboys committed a foul and Durant was given a penalty kick.
Senior midfielder Jena Sofran made the game winner.
For most of the game, Durant controlled the ball using short passes and a tight defense.
Although the Cowboys made several runs at the net, the Cougars' defense was just too tight and Gaither was unable to finish.
"We call our back line the "No Goals Defense,' " Durant coach Dick Sheffield said. "They have allowed only six goals all season and have helped record 19 shutouts.
"We normally start slow, but tonight we started fast and kept pushing them for the whole match."
Gaither had its defensive moments as well.
The Cowboys robbed the Cougars time and time again.
By the end of the game, both sides were playing as hard as they were in the beginning. Neither team wanted a penalty kick goal to dictate the outcome.
"These were a couple of evenly matched teams," Gaither coach Dianne Sumner said. "Nobody wants to win or lose a match on a penalty kick. In close matches, the team with the fewest mistakes usually wins. We made too many mistakes tonight.
"Next week counts. If this is to be our only loss, at least it is behind us now."