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By ADAM HIMMELSBACH
RADFORD--As her teammates joyously hugged parents and siblings and friends, the amazing goalie sat on a small brick wall beneath the tower of bleachers, clutching her back and writhing in pain.
Her father stood close by, more proud than concerned, because he knew his baby girl was tough as ever.
Kathleen Underwood had just finished tossing her body around the goal box like a kid belly-flopping into a pool. Each time she hit the ground during the Courtland girls soccer team's Group AA semifinal against Hidden Valley, she cringed.
But she kept diving onto the Radford University field. That's what you do in penalty-kick shootouts. That's what you do when you've been a backup goalie all season, and get this one shot on this one stage that happens to be as big as they come.
After the game trudged through regulation, four overtimes and five rounds of penalty kicks, Underwood sprawled to her right on a penalty kick by Kelsey Ballard. She punched the ball, and it skipped off the goal post and out of trouble.
Suddenly, the Cougars had control of the sudden-death shootout. They had a chance to win.
Stacy Fletcher calmly popped a shot to the low left side. The ball was deflected by Hidden Valley keeper Erika Troia, but it caught the inside of the post and skipped to the back of the net, giving Courtland a 5-4 victory.
The Cougars (16-5-3) will face Stone Bridge today at 1 p.m. in the Group AA state final.
"Kathleen was absolutely amazing," said Courtland coach Dennis Berry, who turned his back to the entire shootout out of superstition. "I had so much confidence in her, and a game like this gives her so much confidence in herself."
Courtland's regular goalkeeper, Kerri Butler, is in New Jersey this weekend for an Olympic Development Program soccer tournament. Early this week, Underwood found out she would be starting in net. She called her personal goalkeeping coach, and on Wednesday the two spent two hours together working on mechanics.
Underwood, who normally starts on defense, injured her lower back while making a tackle two weeks ago. Late in yesterday's game, the pain was almost too much for the junior to take.
"When we kept switching sides for overtime, I didn't think I could do it," she said. "I didn't want anyone to know I was hurting so much."
Still, with a little ice and rest, she says she'll be ready for today's title game.
After yesterday's contest the Cougars were headed to a spaghetti dinner and then back to their Radford dorm rooms to rest. After the grueling semifinal that lasted nearly four hours, the team could use some rest.
"We were getting so tired out there," freshman sparkplug Lauren McCoy said. "You could see at the end both teams weren't moving very quickly."
At the beginning, though, both teams were charging.
In the second minute Hidden Valley striker Meredith Grunewald received a pass at the top of the box, turned and fired a blistering low shot. But Underwood reacted quickly, making a strong diving stop.
"That made my confidence soar out of the roof," she said. "I was ready for anything that came at me after that."
The Cougars benefited from a strong wind at their backs in the first half and subdued the Titans after their early spree.
In the 28th minute, Fletcher sent a windswept corner kick to the near left post. Amy Wampler flicked it to Nikki Denue on the right, and the senior tapped the ball across the line for the game's first tally.
"That's what we've been working on at practice, because I'm one of the bigger players on the team, and it just bounced right through," Denue said. "I don't think there's any way I could've missed it."
A large patch of charcoal clouds came rolling off the Blue Ridge Mountains late in the first half. A brief thunderstorm doused the field at halftime, and the game was delayed for 50 minutes. The Cougars retreated beneath the stadium and stretched, and later went into the covered bleachers and sat with their families.
Though the rain stopped, the wind didn't, and in the second half Hidden Valley played with the gusts at its back.
"That wind was like a 12th man," Titans coach Jason Suhr said. "It was unbelievable for us in the second half after we had a little rest."
In the 58th minute, Hidden Valley's Bethany Wedge found Grunewald 15 yards from the net. Underwood tried to collapse on the play, but Grunewald skidded a shot past her to tie the score at 1.
The Titans nearly took the lead with four minutes left in regulation, but Underwood swallowed a low, blazing shot by Devon McCarty.
Both teams were sapped of energy during the four overtimes, and the contest rolled to the penalty-kick shootout.
"We weren't even that nervous," Denue said. "When it went to PKs, I knew we would win. I knew it was ours."
The Cougars took an early 1-0 lead when Fletcher drilled a shot to the low right corner and Ballard of Hidden Valley fired an offering wide right.
Both teams made their next two shots, as the Cougars took a 3-2 lead into the fourth round. But Courtland's Amy Wampler had her shot blocked by Troia, and McCarty tied the score for the Titans by slamming a ball to the top left corner of the net.
Courtland's Brianna Stout and Grunewald of Hidden Valley both converted their teams' fifth kicks, sending the shootout to a sudden-death finish.
Underwood provided a key diving save to start the sixth round, and Fletcher booted a shot off the right post and into the goal to end it, sending the Cougars to the state title game.
"I was so glad when it rolled in there," Fletcher said. "This is all so amazing."
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