In this season’s inaugural NEST Game of the Week, the Class A #1 Lincoln Southwest girls soccer team defeated Class B #2 Lincoln Pius X in a shootout after a scoreless regulation and overtime. Sound familiar?
Last year, the Silverhawks beat the Thunderbolts on penalties on the biggest stage of the season in the Class A championship game.
Southwest coach Thomas Nettleton described the win as “Deja vu.”
“I’m proud of our girls,” Nettleton said. “Our goalkeeper (Clara Fundus) just came up huge, two saves in regulation, 1v1s, and to come up with three saves in the shootout, that’s just crazy.”
Fundus won both this and last season’s shootouts.
“I just knew the pressure is not on me, the pressure’s on the kicker, and that really takes a lot of weight off for me,” Fundus said. “I just know I need to do my thing and it’ll all work out.”
Coach Nettleton praised the way Fundus approaches games.
“First and foremost, you have to acknowledge how much she prepares,” Nettleton said. “She cares deeply about her preparation. She takes care of herself really well. She’s a phenomenal teammate, so she builds momentum for our team just by how she does things and who she is. I think it’s just incredible to see someone that does all of the right things have some success.”
This season’s contest served as both team’s home opener, and neither team could find the net until the shootout.
“Pius, credit to them, what a gritty performance,” Nettleton said. “They’re such a good team, well coached. Just love the back and forth between us, and to start with a tough match and then continue to go through, good things are happening. (The win) gives us momentum, but at the same time, there’s some humility here. We’ve got a lot of things to improve.”
Nettleton praised the Thunderbolt gameplan.
“What they do so well is they, they lure you in with very, very good defense, and then they spring on you,” Nettleton said. “They set it up so that they can build success with defense and then move it forward. And so, I mean, they did really”
In the shootout, Pius made their first two kicks, but shots three, four, and five were stopped. Meanwhile, Southwest missed their second and third shots, but sophomore Ansley Throener and senior Molly Riggins buried the following two penalty kicks to win the game.
“Playing an opponent like this and having a result like this is such a great thing for the beginning of the season,” Fundus said. “It establishes our grit and it makes us way stronger as a team”
The schedule for the Class B #2 Thunderbolts does not get any easier, as they travel to #8 Gretna on March 25, and #4 Norris on the 29th. Meanwhile, the Class A #1 Silverhawks will face the #2 Omaha Marian Crusaders on March 29th.
Fisher Madsen is a contributor for Nebraska Soccer Talk, currently studying Sports Media at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.
