Image by Mr. Artie Walker
SOUTH AIKEN 1 (4), CHAPIN 1 (2)
IRMO — The chants of MVP started coming from the South Aiken student section as the second of the two five-minute, sudden-death extra-time periods began. South Aiken goalkeeper Makenzie Cude was the subject of the chant, but despite her stopping everything that came her way during the extra time periods, her best was yet to come.
The senior stopped two penalty kicks after the game ended in a 1-1 draw, and Edie Demedicis was the fourth Thoroughbred to make her penalty kick to give South Aiken a victory and the Class AAAA state championship. The Thoroughbreds finished with a 4-2 advantage on penalty kicks.
“Makenzie; just gangbusters, man,” South Aiken head coach Dave Mihoulides said. “She showed up through the playoffs here. We played Eastside and that was the game she kind of arrived. After that we went to Wren and took care of business there. Then tonight just coming up big with some big saves, especially in PKs. We gave her the game ball tonight. She did a great job.”
South Aiken got on the board in the 54th minute when Marissa Lee scored on a pass from Megan Musick on a free kick. It would stay that way until the 68th minute when Katie Arthur scored, but for a few seconds it looked like Cude had even stopped that shot. It deflected off of her leg and she thought the defender had cleared it off the line before it crossed, but the ref ruled otherwise.
Another 42 minutes of playing time went by without a change in the score, and Mihoulides was especially pleased with the play of his backline during that stretch.
“They were gassed, and I tell you Edie (Demedicis), Eme (DeGraaf), Anna (Christensen), Allie (McGarry) — we're short on defenders — they just stepped it up,” Mihoulides said. “They just dug deep. I said 'I know you're gassed, keep digging deep, and lets go ahead and find this win.'”
Read the rest of the story in The Aiken Standard HERE!