The Class B No. 5 Blair girls soccer team had allowed just one goal at Krantz Field all season.
The Elkhorn Antlers, however, scored two across the last 2:10 of Monday's first half.
“Coming out of that half, it was a little stressful,” senior Brynn Ray admitted.
But the Bears alleviated that tension with four second-half goals, putting away the No. 3 seed, 6-3, during the first round of the Eastern Midlands Conference (EMC) Tournament's Gold bracket.
“We came together as a team and just said, 'Look, that can't happen again,'” senior Blythe Knight said of the Bears' defensive collapse late during the first half. “'We're going to play as a team to not let that happen again.'”
Once Kaitlynn O'Neil scored BHS' first goal of the second half 5 minutes in, Ray “knew they were just going to keep falling,” she said.
O'Neil's second score of the match — Cadence Field and she each tallied one goal each during the first half, too — broke a 2-2 tie. Elkhorn netted a quick response, tying the match back up at 3-3, but it was all Bears from there.
Coach Nick Hall's team went ahead again during the 57th minute when ninth-grader Beau Wendt cleaned up a loose ball in front of the Antlers' net. Claire Anderson had teed off on a corner kick, sending the ball into the box before Wendt finally got to it for the score.
Ahead 4-3, Ray netted the next two Blair goals on Senior Night. The Minnesota State recruit first went high, pounding the ball through the Elkhorn keeper's mitts during the 62nd minute before hooking one into the far corner of the goal from distance in the 64th.
“When we can score one (goal), we definitely get the momentum going and they just keep coming after that,” Ray said.
The win pushed the Bears' season record to 11-1 and set up an EMC rematch with Class B No. 1 Gretna East, the other conference tourney finalist. The Griffins previously beat BHS 4-3 on April 14.
The championship match was Wednesday with results set to appear in next Tuesday's Washington County Pilot Tribune edition.
BHS SOCCER LINE SCORE
Monday
No. 5 Blair 6, Elkhorn 3
EHS (7-5) 2 1 — 3
BHS (11-1) 2 4 — 6
Goals: BHS — Kaitlynn O'Neil 2, Brynn Ray 2, Cadence Field 1, Beau Wendt 1. Winning goalkeeper: Brooklyn Schroeter.
