Bearcats win, scoring one last game for departing coach
Brookland-Cayce girls soccer coach Emily Heise wanted one more game with her team, and her players delivered.
Evelyn Frierson and Jasmine Gantt each scored a goal, and the Bearcats survived a frantic finish to defeat Bishop England, 2-1, on Monday in the Class 3A Lower State girls soccer championship.
The Bearcats face Indian Land in Saturday’s title match at Irmo High School at 1 p.m.
The victory assures Heise a final goodbye with her team. She and her husband Kevin Heise will be introduced Tuesday as new soccer coaches at Gray Collegiate. Kevin Heise, the long-time B-C boys coach, has been on administrative leave since Feb. 10 and resigned last month.
Emily sprinted across the field to hug her husband who was sitting on the visitor’s side during the game.
“I am really excited I got one more game. The girls really deserve it. I love my girls, every single one of them,” Emily Heise said. “We haven’t been dealt a good hand as a soccer program. But we continue to fight every day. The girls got better and better, and we showed a lot of heart and that is what this program is about.
“We all had one goal and didn’t let outside things bother us of achieving us.”
It’s B-C’s first championship appearance since 2006. The Bearcats’ last title was in 2005. Heise was a player on both of those teams and said this year’s run has some similarities to the 2005 season.
Evelyn Frierson, who missed last season with an ACL injury, put Brookland-Cayce up 1-0 with a goal in the sixth minute. That score remained until the second half when Jasmine Gantt scored a goal in the 56th minute
Gantt dribbled through four Bishop England defenders and then got her own rebound for the goal.
Bishop England answered quickly. Lauren Moriarity scored less than a minute later to cut the lead to 2-1.
Things got interesting at the end as B-C keeper Alyssa Stevens went down with injury with less than two minutes left after colliding with a Bishops’ player. Charlotte Teeter replaced Stevens who limped off the field.
Bishop England got a good look at Teeter and the B-C defense but Haley Merrill’s shot went wide right.
“As eerie as it sounds, I knew the shot wasn’t going in,” Heise said. “The girls battled the entire game. And it wasn’t Bishop England’s night. It was our night.”
Bishop England outshot the Bearcats, 12-9. Stevens had six saves for B-C.
This story was originally published May 8, 2017 at 9:39 PM with the headline "Bearcats win, scoring one last game for departing coach."