In a game that was focused on celebrating the 18-year-olds on the roster, the key moment in the game came from someone who is only “18” when she puts on her Mac soccer jersey.

Sophomore Caroline Owen, who wears No. 18 but is only 16, did not start the game Thursday night because it was Senior Night. When Owens entered the game midway through the first half, the game was still scoreless.

The underdog Vikings had defended well, but the Knights were perhaps a bit distracted by the emotional Senior Night ceremony that preceded the opening kick.

“We were kind of in a daze about how to play,” said junior midfielder Chloe Anderson, one of the few non-seniors who took the field to start the game. “We were emotional because it was Senior Night, and we already knew we had an extremely good chance of winning.”

Owen, who has a tendency to make things happen on the pitch as the team’s offensive midfielder, was the spark that ignited the Knight offense.

“I think the first goal was what we needed to get us fired up,” Anderson said. “A lot of it was a team effort, the build up and everything, and then on top of that, Caroline is extremely offensive-minded and helped us get the momentum.”

Owen received the ball close to the Viking net and directed the ball just inside the left goal post to give the Knights the lead.

“We were really hungry to score because we were clearly the stronger team but the score was still 0-0 like 20 minutes in,” Owen said of her game-changing goal. “We started to get our rhythm at that point, (I believe it was [sophomore] Kat [Klein]) had the ball out wide, played a really nicely placed ball around the top of the box, I took a big touch towards the right and then just put it into the lower left corner.”

Owen said the No. 1 emotion she felt at the time was relief.

“The team was anxious about not scoring yet, and we were worried about going into halftime 0-0,” she said. “I was also relieved I didn’t let my teammates down by missing a good opportunity to turn the game around.”

Minutes later, it was Anderson, a defensive midfielder by trade, who scored from long range to double the Knights advantage. Anderson noticed she had an open shot and placed it expertly in the upper half of the Viking net.

 

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“It was kind of my signature goal because it slipped right in over the goalie’s head, which happens almost every single time I score, which isn’t all that often. When I do end up shooting, most of the time the defense is out of position including the goalie, then we just hope for the best.”

She credited her teammates with distracting the defense so she could get an open look.

“Everyone was too focused on immediate danger to recognize me,” she said.

Catalyzed by goals scored by a sophomore and a junior, senior Mia Gomez exploded offensively to end the first half, scoring a hat-trick in rapid-fire succession. One of the goals was a nifty flick redirection using only the outstep of her right foot. On the third goal, she broke through the Viking defense and found herself alone with the ball at her feet and only the goalie to beat, which she did.

Anderson said the team’s approach to the second half says a lot about what makes the team tick.

“Everyone on the team was working to get other seniors to score, whether they ended up being able to or not,” Anderson said. “There were many chances where either underclass players or people who have already scored would have been able to score again, but instead tried to dish the ball off to other people in order to allow them the chance to score.”

Anderson said that approach shows how important the teammates are to each other.

“Regardless of opportunity we all try and work together to spread the possibilities and try to keep everyone involved and give everyone their moment of glory.”

While that’s true, Anderson also knew there would be hell to pay if they gave up a goal with everyone playing new positions.

“Our team pulled through, which was no surprise,” Anderson said.

Goal differential is the tiebreaker is currently the determining factor separating Mac and Anderson, the two teams atop the district standings. Each has a loss to the other as the only blemish on an otherwise perfect district record.

Sophomore Kat Klein scored the lone second-half goal, which produced a 6-0 Senior Night final score. The Knights have a tough test at third-place Ann Richards on Tuesday night.

 

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