Lady Cats eliminated

By Brandon Shields
bshields@cullmantimes.com

May 02, 2007 12:57 am

— Cullman’s girls’ soccer team’s efforts to get into the Class 5A quarterfinals fell short Tuesday night as the Lady Bearcats fell to Decatur 5-0 on the road.
Cullman head coach Nick Feldner said his team played a good game, especially in the first half, but Decatur got some momentum late in the first half and carried it to three goals in the second half.
“It was like a dam that was holding their scoring back,” Feldner said. “We did a good job throughout the first half of keeping them from scoring, and our defense was like a brick wall.
“Then we made a couple of mistakes, and a couple of goals kind of trickled through. Then the dam broke in the second half, and they pulled away with it.”
Decatur scored its first goal with about 11 minutes remaining in the first half, and the second one found the back of the net with about one minute remaining before intermission.
After that, Decatur added three goals in the game’s final 40 minutes. Because the Lady Bearcats were a young team in 2007, they will lose only two seniors to graduation. However, Feldner said they will be two big losses.
“We lose two very good seniors in Emily Miller and Maggie McDaniel,” Feldner said. “One is our leading scorer, and the other is one of the anchors of our defense.”
On the positive side, Feldner said there is a lot of experience returning for the Lady Bearcats in 2008, and it could be a very good season for Cullman girls soccer.
“We have a lot of experience coming back from next year, and everyone that is coming back made a lot of improvements in their games this season,” Feldner said. “That plus the possibility of some good players moving up to varsity means we could have a very good year.
“It’s obviously going to be a goal to get back to the playoffs, but I think we will be able to compete for the section.”