Emma Westlund practices parabolic soccer shots from 35 yards and farther.
The practice paid off against Bishop Brossart on Wednesday. Campbell County’s junior defender scored from really long range in the 76th minute – the game-winning goal in the Camels’ 3-2 victory at Munninghoff Family Stadium.
Westlund aimed for the crossbar, but for a second, she thought her shot had missed – until she saw it evade Mustangs goalkeeper Madeline Broering’s fingertips and go into the net.
“I’ve been practicing long balls for a while, and I was just hoping for the best,” Westlund said.
There was a bit of consolation for Bishop Brossart (9-5-1, 2-1) – the Mustangs earned the top seed in the 37th District tournament later this month at Campbell County. The reason: though Brossart, Campbell County and Scott all finished 2-1 in district seeding games, the Mustangs are the top seed because they allowed just three goals to the Camels’ four.
Campbell County (6-7-2, 2-1 in the district) is thus the 2-seed. Scott, the 3-seed, surrendered five goals.
“We came out here to win the game,” Campbell County coach David Morris said.
Brossart coach Andy Smith saw some things he liked.
“Overall, we had more energy (Wednesday),” Smith said. “We’ve been lacking energy lately, so we had some more energy. We played hard, they played hard.
“The ball didn’t go our way.”
For about three minutes, you could’ve been forgiven for thinking the final score could’ve been 23-22.
In the second minute, Brossart’s Abby Lloyd shot from about 10 yards away and beat Campbell County goalkeeper Abi Medaugh.
“Holy smokes, one minute and 15 seconds, I think, to be exact,” Morris said. “I was obviously worried at that point … They just kept playing like nothing had happened.”
It didn’t take the Camels long to tie the score because Kennedy Crowley scored her sixth goal less than a minute later.
“We were all pushing up, and Jozie (Holmes) had the ball; she was dribbling through everyone,” Crowley said. “Then she made that diagonal ball in the center to me. And then, I shot it.”
Holmes beat Broering for her seventh goal in the 30th minute.
In the 47th minute, a scrum for a loose ball inside the 18-yard box became a 2-2 tie when the Mustangs’ Avery Schaeffer converted the penalty kick by beating Morgan Roomes to the lower right side.
“I saw a really, really good offensive play by (Brossart’s) Hadley Eviston,” Smith said. “She got in the box, she played physical, she drew the foul and got us the PK.”
The Mustangs still lead the overall series, 23-18 since 2001, but the Camels have won 11 of the last 13 since 2018.
Campbell County begins a two-game home stand against George Rogers Clark at 10 a.m. Saturday. Brossart hosts Holy Cross at 7:30 p.m. Monday.