By Ted Waddell
NEWBURGH — November 4, 2003 – The dream is over for Jolene Porter, first year coach of the Eldred Central School girls’ varsity soccer squad, and her team of hard-charging booters.
At least for this season.
Going into the Section IX Class D final on Saturday afternoon at Recreation Park in Newburgh, the Eldred Lady Yellowjackets were seeded third as they faced the top-ranked Lady Spartans of S.S. Seward.
Before the match got underway on a field chewed up by a series of recent gridiron battles, Porter led her team in a quick prayer and told them, “Let’s play as hard as we can for 80 minutes and come out on top.”
In the first half, the Lady Spartans scored the first of four unanswered goals at 21:17 on a shot by Theresa Space off an assist by Katie Akrop, thus beginning an eventual a hat trick for Seward’s top gun of the match.
In the second half, Seward (18-1) scored three goals.
At 32:14, Space scored on an assist from Susan Tuthill, and at 20:53 that duo teamed up again to make it a 3-0 game.
The Lady Spartans closed out the scoring in the match at 20:53 on a shot into the net by Tricia Dugan.
With the win, Seward moves on to play a state tournament opening round match today in Middletown.
“I thought the field conditions were sloppy, making it difficult for both teams,” Seward Coach Rob Gravelle said.
“Eldred had a lot of enthusiasm, and I think they outplayed us for the first 50 minutes of the game,” he added. “Then we started playing.”
In wrapping up the game, Porter said, “I thought we played hard, but we just didn’t win.”
Her take of the 2003 soccer season?
“I think the kids made out better than they thought they were going to,” she said.
Eldred finished the 2003 season with a record of 8-10.