Cedarville women’s soccer advances to GMAC semifinals in victory over Thomas More

By Tayler Sharp

A soccer game in which the only two goals were scored within the last five minutes of the first half. 

Though that sounds crazy, it’s exactly how the Cedarville women’s soccer team defeated Thomas More 2-0 on Saturday afternoon in the GMAC conference quarterfinals. 

The Lady Jackets soccer team finished the regular season with a 12-2-5 record, entering the GMAC conference as the No. 3 seed. The No. 6-seeded Thomas More Saints (7-10-2) were the Lady Jackets’ first matchup in the postseason. 

In September, the Lady Jackets defeated the Saints 1-0 during the regular season. Given that, it was known that Saturday’s quarterfinals game would be a defense-dominant game and not an easy one for the Jackets. 

Without a doubt, the game was the defensive fight it was expected to be. Both the Jackets and the Saints were heavily motivated by the chance of moving on to the GMAC semifinals. 

It was not until the 39th minute of the match that the Jackets finally found a break in the Thomas More defense. Forward and team leader in season goals, Ella Webb, scored her sixth goal of the season.

“It’s a blessing that I’ve gotten the opportunity to score and so many other people have too,” Webb said. “Everyone has the talent to score, so it’s just really on the whole team to work together and just use what we’ve been building together to do it.”

Before the crowd could get the chance to come down from the elation of Webb’s goal, defender Sophie Browndyke showed out with a goal just two minutes later. Browndyke made the 25-yard free kick look easy. The Lady Jackets celebrated big going into halftime with a 2-0 lead. 

“Going into the postseason, we’ve tried to emphasize sticking together,” said head coach Jonathan Meade. “I think that this was not an easy game for us, and so the players really had to kind of stick together and pick each other up out there. And I think that is something that our team is really known for.” 

That is exactly how the Lady Jackets persevered through the second half: they stuck together. Though their two scores of the game only happened within a short timeframe, the Jackets were able to stick together and keep Thomas More from scoring. 

The Jackets are ready to continue sticking together as they advance to the semifinal game against No. 2-seeded Findlay University on Thursday afternoon. 

Tayler Sharp is a journalism major and writer and photographer for Cedars. Tayler loves playing golf, reading a good book or doing anything outdoors.