Gilbert’s game winner sends Eagles to district final

by Michael Smith


It was just moments earlier when junior Ally Gilbert barely missed a game-winning shot.
Her Grain Valley girls soccer team was in a 1-1 deadlock in overtime with Blue Springs in the Class 4 District 6 semifinals Tuesday on the road and she had an opportunity to send her team to the district title game.

She had a close-range header at the goal that bounced off the bottom of the crossbar and bounced away from the goal. Head coach Brett Lewis was visibly in disbelief because it appeared the Eagles had a chance to end it on that attempt.

However, Gilbert later got her redemption. The junior blasted a shot from the left sideline with a little more than 5 minutes left in the first overtime period.

Blue Springs goalkeeper Mary Cates ranged over to her left to try and corral the shot, but Gilbert perfect placed the ball inside the far post for the game winner as her goal gave Grain Valley a 2-1 victory.

The Eagles (18-4) punched their ticket to the district championship game where they will take on Blue Springs South (14-4-1) at 6 p.m. Thursday. The Jaguars beat Columbia Hickman 2-0 in their semifinal contest.

Gilbert’s goal sent everyone on her team into celebration mode as her teammates surrounded her screaming in jubilation. It was a moment Gilbert will likely never forget.

“Everyone was about to cry and were in tears,” Gilbert said. “We never thought we were going to lose. We knew we were going to win. We had that game-winning mindset.

“I am so proud of these girls; they worked their butts off this whole game. They scored in the last minute of the game, and we didn’t give up.”

The shot was a difficult one but it’s not one Gilbert hasn’t taken before. Lewis said he felt confident that his junior could make it.

“We have done so many finishing drills and Ally has probably taken that exact shot over 1,000 times this season in practice,” Lewis said. “I knew if she got a little bit of space and time to shoot it, I was going to trust that she could get the ball in frame. She hit it as well as you can.”

While Gilbert knocked in the game winner, her senior teammate, Sevi Aumua, made that moment possible with her rock-solid defense. She made several critical tackles and stops on her team’s side of the field.

Perhaps her most impactful play came in the 75th minute when Blue Springs senior midfielder Caitlin Lagemann had a wide-open lane to the goal from the left wing. It appeared Lagemann was going to get an open shot right at the goal, but Aumua sprinted to greet her and made a solid tackle, stole the ball and cleared it toward the right sideline.

“Sevi does so much for us. Sometimes people don’t see how great she is defensively,” Lewis said. “She is always there in recovery when someone gets beat.”

Aumua, who was the heart and soul of the defense, contributed in another impactful way, as well. She knocked in a header off a corner kick from senior Emma Thiessen in the 33rd minute to put her team up 1-0. The senior appeared to have a shocked look on her face after making the shot.

“I am always surprised when I score or even get a touch on the ball,” Aumua said. “I am just a defender in the back. Usually coming up I think, ‘What am I doing?’ When I get up there I have the motivation to not just get it for me, but my team.”

In the second, half Blue Springs dominated possession but had a hard time getting a shot on goal. The Wildcats (9-10) finally did at the most opportune time. Junior Hazel Trotman beat two Grain Valley defenders to the back line, sent a cross to Lagemann and the senior buried a point-blank shot with just 57 seconds left for the equalizer.

However, Gilbert prevented what could have been a troubling scenario for Grain Valley after it seemed the Wildcats gained all the momentum.

The Eagles will now turn their attention to South, who defeated Grain Valley 1-0 after winning a shootout on May 2. Lewis said he feels his team has a shot at winning districts.

“I think we can beat them but we certainly have to be a lot better than we were tonight,” Lewis said. “I feel like we have the girls to do it.”

Grain Valley senior Sevi Aumua, left, and Ally Gilbert  each scored a goal to help Grain Valley win 2-1 in overtime against Blue Springs in the Class 4 District 6 semifinals. Photo credit: Michael Smith