Title Time

Bishops rally for 7th straight girls' championship

Class AA-A Girls' Soccer

COLUMBIA — With her team down 1-0, Bishop England's Lizzie Daly scored two goals in 75 seconds Friday afternoon to provide memories that will last a lifetime.

And the two goals gave the Bishops another Class AA state title as they went on to gain a 4-1 victory over Woodruff in front of approximately 1,000 fans at the University of South Carolina's Stone Stadium.

The Bishops' decade of domination continued as they rolled to their seventh straight state championship.

"Well, it is special," Bishop England coach Dave Snyder said after his team upped its record to 16-7-1. "I don't keep track of it because each year, I'm just worried about us getting here. The history is nice, but to be honest with you, it's one game at a time when you get to the playoffs. This team came back from an injured state (earlier in the year), and I'm just proud of their effort."

Bishop England defeated the Wolverines 1-0 in last year's title game, but Friday seemed to be Woodruff's day, at least for the first 40 minutes.

Woodruff dominated the first half,

taking a 1-0 lead when freshman Casey Black scored in the 31st minute. The Wolverines took five shots in the first half to just one for the Bishops. Bishop England keeper Erika Christensen was effective in the first half despite giving up the goal. She had four saves to keep the Bishops in the game.

"I wish we could have played that way in the second half," Woodruff coach Fernando Gomez said. "We dominated in the first half. We had plenty of opportunities and converted one. I told the girls we didn't need to change anything, but we did. We made a couple of mistakes out there."

Snyder said he had his team's attention at halftime, adding, "We just needed to straighten out a few things. We were a little disconnected. We decided to push it up a little bit and put more pressure on their defense, to see if instead of a first shot, we could play a second ball. We didn't make that many adjustments — we made a few. They seemed to work."

Daly tied the score at the 49:18 mark with her first goal. She made it 2-1 just 75 seconds later, and that was the knockout punch.

"That was amazing," Daly said. "That was a big rush for me. I'm still smiling. We worked our hearts out, and we got another state championship. We never gave up. Their first half, we didn't expect them to be so great."

Ayla Walter scored the Bishops' third goal in a span of three minutes and 54 seconds to put the match out of reach. Elizabeth Miller closed out the scoring with a goal at the 67:04 mark.

"We struggled offensively all year," Snyder said. "I know we scored 96 goals this year. But the fact of the matter is that some of those were against teams who allowed us to score goals. For them to finally break through in a critical time is super."

The Bishops used their depth to wear down the Wolverines.

"When we substitute, we don't miss a beat," Snyder said.

The Bishops dressed 27 player for the match Friday and only two were seniors.