Virginia Beach Piranhas News Release - www.vbpiranhas.com
Sunday, June 12, 2011
DAYTON, Ohio – The W League Piranhas (2-2-0) jumped into third place in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference Saturday night, primarily on the strength of Steffi Goddard’s right foot. Goddard has simply outscored the team’s opposition including the Dayton Dutch Lions (3-2-1), netting a hat trick in each of her last two matches. That’s six goals in two games to people who are not diehard footy fans. And two of those goals were game winners – one in stoppage time on June 4th and one just before the final whistle at 90 minutes Saturday night.
Saturday night’s road match win at Dayton came after a 9-hour van ride from Virginia Beach. The entire team and coach Wendy Waddell arrived very late Friday night but were fired up and ready to go Saturday, feeding off the frenzy of June 4th’s last minute 5-4 win over Fredericksburg. That win, too, was courtesy of Goddard’s second half heroics. The Red and White were primed and felt they had the talent and the will to do it again. And they did.
This is not to say that Goddard won this game single-handedly. She didn’t. She had lots of help from her teammates and her coach. Saturday’s dose of déjà vu was helped immensely by Emily Kittleson’s two assists and by the Piranha’s second goal that came by way of newcomer Cheyenne Martinez-Trevino. Kittleson also assisted on Goddard’s game-winner on June 4th. The other Piranha team members just kept up the pressure both on offense and defense to insure the win.
Coach Waddell changed things up a bit for this match after Dayton scored in the third minute of play. It was a quick wakeup call. Even after Goddard’s last performance, Waddell moved her up to a forward position from midfield and adjusted other combinations in her lineup. The team responded and four minutes later evened the score at 1-1 off Goddard’s first goal of the match.
The Piranhas took the 2-1 lead in the 19th minute off of Martinez-Trevino’s goal and settled in. But Dayton evened the score two minutes before the break and the first half ended 2-2.
Virginia Beach started the second half with a winning mindset and Goddard netted her second goal to take her team up 3-2 in the 56th minute. But you can’t sit back in a match with the top team in the division and Dayton didn’t disappoint, pulling even again in the 85th minute, 3-3. The Piranhas, though, weren’t to be denied and the twosome of Goddard and Kittleson went to work in the 89th minute. Kittleson collected a throughball and ran up the far side, finishing her run with a cross to the middle. Goddard was waiting and powered the feed past the Dayton keeper for the winner. Seconds later, the whistle sounded to mark the Piranhas 4-3 win.
Goddard now stands in first place in the W League in goals with six, in second place in points with 12 and in 7th place in shots with 16 - all in four games. Kittleson stands in second place in the W League in assists with four, also in just four games.
The W League Piranhas will return home to the Sportsplex on Friday, June 17 at 5:30 p.m. against Atlanta. The women will play in the first half of a doubleheader with the PDL Piranhas who will face West Virginia at 8 p.m. Gates open at 4:30 p.m.