Eagles girls soccer captures share of conference title with 4-2 win over Truman

by Michael Smith


It appeared the Grain Valley girls soccer team’s chances of winning a Suburban White Conference title were slipping away.

With a win, Grain Valley would clinch at least a share of the conference title with Platte County, who also had a 12-1 record coming into Thursday.

The Eagles were in a battle with Truman, who held a 2-1 lead going into the final 30 minutes of the game. Up until that point, Grain Valley had several opportunities to score but shots were going over or wide of the Truman goal.

It desperately needed a goal. Senior Mia Cole stepped up to provide it. A long throw in from junior Radleigh Childers bounced a couple of times and ended up in front of the Truman net. The ball bounced high enough for Cole to knock in a header with 14 minutes and 30 seconds left to tie the game.

That jump started a scoring spurt of three goals for the Eagles as they overcame a deficit to win 4-2 at Moody Murray Memorial Field and clinched a share of the conference title.

“That was huge because we were in a rut,” Grain Valley head coach Brett Lewis said of Cole’s goal. “Everything was going over, at the keeper or wide. We were allergic to the goal today.”

Cole credited Childers for the opportunity at the goal. The junior specializes the long throw ins in the attacking third of the field.

“Rad had a great throw in,” Cole said. “She has had a ton of those this year. We knew we had to score. It wasn’t only to win conference, but it was also Senior Night. We needed to boost out confidence before districts.”

Childers scored the go-ahead goal with 8:24 remaining as a direct free kick from senior Ally Gilbert hit off the chest of Truman goalkeeper Camren Pennington. The ball leaked out to Childers, who had her back to the goal. She turned a fired in a close-range shot to give her team the lead for good at 3-2.

Junior Avery Stumpenhaus added an insurance goal about four minutes later when she received a cross from Childers and she made a tap in near the left side of the net for a two-goal lead.

“She has mostly played defense this year, but there are times I slide her up and she has made things happen,” Lewis said of Stumpenhaus.

Before Grain Valley’s three goals in the final 15 minutes, Truman’s defense made it difficult for Grain Valley to get clean looks inside the 18-yard box. The Patriots packed the middle of the field and focused on stopping Childers, which helped force several missed shots from the Eagles (17-2, 13-1 conference).

The Eagles struck first when Childers received a through ball from Cole and slipped a shot past a challenging Pennington and into the net in the 11th minute for a 1-0 lead.

However, about three minutes later, Truman freshman Kadyn Roady stole the ball from an Eagles’ ball handler and put in a breakaway attempt to tie it at 1-1.

Patriots junior Breia Lowry scored in a similar fashion in the 51st minute when she started a counterattack after stealing the ball and she scored on a breakaway to put Truman ahead 2-1 before Grain Valley started its comeback.

“They played really well today,” Stumpenhaus said of Truman. “We didn’t expect it to be this close. We beat them 8-0 last time, so we thought it would be an easy game. They came out and smacked us in the face.”

The Eagles will now turn their attention to the Class 4 District 6 tournament as they will be the No. 2 seed and will face Blue Springs (3-15) on May 20 at Sedalia Smith-Cotton High School. The Eagles defeated the Wildcats earlier in the season 2-1 after winning a shootout.

​“Blue Springs is the best No. 7 seed in the state,” Lewis said. “It was unfortunate how the seeding worked. We didn’t have a Zoom meeting, we filled out a Google form and voted. I think people looked at their record and thought they weren’t very good but didn’t see the actual results. They only lost by one goal in their losses against really good teams. They’re a good team. We have to be ready to fight and battle.”

Grain Valley senior Mia Cole scored the tying goal in the 65th minute to help Grain Valley overcome a 2-1 deficit and defeat Truman 4-2 Thursday at home. The win gave Grain Valley a share of the Suburban White Conference title. Photo credit: Michael Smith