One moment you’re standing with your hands on your hips watching … wondering if the ball is ever going to come your way.
The next instant the patience you have been practicing vanishes and you’re asked to produce.
Such is life as a target forward. It’s an existence that offers fleeting rewards, and is one Tori Fields has come to accept in her time with the Heritage Academy girls soccer team.
“It’s fun, but there is a lot of pressure because when you get the ball everyone expects you to score,” Fields said.
On Tuesday, the payoff came early for the senior forward with a goal in the seventh minute that Heritage Academy used to defeat Immanuel Christian 1-0 at the Joe Cook Soccer Complex.
Fields was in position to capitalize because she didn’t have her hands on her hips. When she read the bouncing ball going over the head of the defender, she broke through the seam to collect the loose ball. She then tucked the ball into the lower left corner past goalkeeper Taylor Kidder.
“Right when I saw it I just sprinted,” Fields said. “We feel we have an advantage on our field because it is tough to play on for other people. We can tell how far (bouncing balls) are going to go.”
The rest of Fields’ day was filled with frustration. In soccer, that’s usually how it goes, though. The difference for Fields was she and her teammates were still feeling the effects from a shootout loss to Washington School on Monday night in Greenville. Coach Joe Asadi said the team didn’t get back to Columbus until about midnight, which could explain their inability to put the game way despite holding a 15-5 edge in shots.
Still, Asadi, who also coaches the Heritage Academy boys soccer team and is in his first season as girls coach, was pleased with his team’s resolve and play on offense. The Lady Patriots (1-2) controlled much of the action in the final 40 minutes, limiting the Lady Rams (2-1) to two shots.
“When you keep losing, one season, two seasons back to back, you down yourself,” Asadi said. “No matter how much skill you may grab in the preseason or in the practice time, if you don’t have believing in yourself (it isn’t going to work). When you win one or two games, that provides a positive spark and you start believing in yourself.”
With 10 of his 20 players in seventh through 10th grades, Asadi said the team has the potential to mature into a contender in the next couple of seasons. This season, he already has seen the team come together and show a greater intensity and a desire to compete.
Asadi also has seen that mentality from Fields.
“She decided to be a little more aggressive, no matter what I am going to do the best I can, as a senior, as a leader,” Asadi said. “She has the skill, she has the speed. You have to be a team player and have a heart She showed me plenty (against Washington School) and today.”
Fields did her best to put the game away in the second half. She took a pass from Katy Whitman only to have Kidder (nine saves) come out and cut down the angle and make a save.
Fields then tried to be a distributor, taking a restart by Roya Asadi and sliding the ball across to Whitman, but Kidder smothered that shot with a diving save.
Later in the half, Fields shot wide right on another scoring chance and then had the turf at Joe Cook slow a shot that she tucked under Kidder and directed to the far post just enough to allow Kidder to recover and make the stop.
“Sometimes I never know what is going to happen,” Fields said. “You just have to wing it.”
Fields had one last scoring burst, as she pushed the ball to the right to Mallory Amos, whose shot went just wide to the far post.
While she would have loved to have added a third or fourth goal on the season to her total, Fields said she was proud of her teammates for coming together and getting Asadi his first victory as the team’s coach.
After the game, Asadi showed he still had a pep in his step as he avoided a Gatorade bath by Avery Phillips and Madison Clark.
Immanuel Christian played nearly the entire match without Missy Swaim. The freshman left the game with an apparent knee injury early in the first half.
Kari Thomason, Rachel Strickland, and Olivia Plant tried to pick up the slack, but the Lady Rams couldn’t sustain enough possession to get behind Roya Asadi and the Lady Patriots’ backline. Strickland had Immanuel Christian’s best scoring chance early in the second half. Her left-footed shot deflected off the chest of the goalkeeper and rebounded out to the left, where Courtney Hall collected it and then chipped it over the crossbar.
Fields knows all too well about getting chances you wish you could get back. She has spent most of her time at Heritage Academy playing up front. She said she also played center midfield in an attempt to possess the ball and distribute it to her teammates. Typically, though, Fields is a target player who receives the ball from her teammates and then attacks.
“It comes and you’re not ready, everyone blames you,” Fields said. “They’re like, ‘Tori, why didn’t you go fast enough?’
“We wanted to get up more so we could put more people in who didn’t get to play. It is frustrating when you keep trying and none of them will go in, just like today.”
Fortunately, she was able to maintain her composure on the one that counted to give Heritage Academy something it can build on for the rest of the season.
“We like coach Asadi a lot,” Fields said. “We have improved already. The first game we didn’t play good at all. Then we practiced for two weeks and our game (against Washington School), we played so good. Our team is getting a lot closer than in past years.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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