Wakefield Before Winter
Goessel Varsity Girls Basketball - @ Wakefield December 18, 2018
Tonight’s away Wheat State matchup at Wakefield Coliseum was a tussle. Goessel looked strong to start, going up 5-0 before physical Freshman Ashley Pollman got into the game. Goessel used strong defense to stretch to 19-11 at the half and turned on the afterburners in the 3rd quarter. Stephany Meyer ignited for 12 in the up-tempo third stanza and finished with 18 as the Bluebirds took care of the Bombers before winter, 39-19.
Wakefield has put in new lighting into their gym which helps immensely. Goessel’s girls sported regulation Christmas socks, Santa on the left and candy canes on the right. Wakefield has many legends associated with it, the lovely town by the lake; the furthest outpost in WSL land. Haley O’Neal struck first at 7:40, then Stephany got away with a block that was called a charge, forayed inside for two, then Goessel found Liz Alderfer rotating in the post, she was fouled and hit the front end of two for the 5-0 start. Wakefield took two back to back timeouts at 6:45 and 6:04. At 5:30 Pollman found the hole and scored a layup a moment later to get back to 5-4. Down the floor Meyer bounced perfectly to Alderfer for a great finish. At 1:51, Porclein Unruh delivered one from beyond fan Cheyenne S.’s llama blanket suite seat but Flickinger responded with a Bomber trey as well. To close the quarter, Madi Smith stopped and popped for the 12-7 lead.
With the Goessel cheer team leading “Go, Fight, Win” the Blue stayed with their two woman front flex pressure, found Unruh inside on the roll and she converted 2 charities to lead 14-9. There were again more travels tonight than can normally be found between mileposts on I-70 on a busy day. Pollman swished two FT’s to leave it at 14-11 and fans felt the heat from the Bomber’s defensive stances, hoping that no Bluebirds would get hurt from flying elbows in the tussle.
Alderfer dropped a beautiful motion finish in, then got one more on a charity, and Meyer closed the half with a perfect follow 19-11.
Goessel started the 2nd half in a 1-2-2 zone with Stephany out front. The ‘Birds used defensive mis-matches and turnovers to move quickly to the hoop, and Meyer converted 6 FG’s quickly in the span of several minutes. Interspersed in the 14-4 quarter were a great baseline move by O’Neal and a steal by Liz Schmucker who fed to Meyer for two points of her flurry of scores. With Goessel up 33-15 and in control, Raechel Boese dribbled on the left side with time running down. As she attempted to hoist the last second shot, her shoe came off and her attempt looked like a Milford Lake river otter whose flipper was out of joint. The shoe flew right and the ball went left.
Out of the break, Boese redeemed her shooting style with a well-crafter baseline 15 footer 35-17. “It’s time out, so shout out, Go Goessel!....” Stephany skated in for two more and with great half court pressure, Goessel’s O’Neal punched one into Smith for a pretty finish and Coach Hoopes cleared the bench at 2:06. Bethany Herrell went to the line for two FT’s but could not convert and the contest ended 39-19.
Stephany Meyer led all scorers with 18, 12 of which came in a quick bunch in the explosive 3rd stanza. Liz Alderfer put up 6 and Porclein Unruh hit for 5 including the only three of the night for the Bluebirds. Madi Smith again provided key ball handling and defensive work and added 4 and Haley O’Neal contributed a nice night with 4. Raechel Boese rounded out the Bluebird scoring with 2. Also seeing action tonight were Liz Schmucker, who played key defensive and point guard roles, Megan Guerrero, Rebecca Sawyer, Bethany Herrel, Chloe Smith, Rachael Zogleman and Kaleigh Guhr.
-Karl Brubaker
