GIRLS SOCCER: Giants wake up

As the sky grew darker from the coming night and storm clouds, so did Fort’s chances of pulling out a win against Waynesboro, falling 5-1 Friday night in Southern Valley District action.

Fort put the first tally on the scoreboard in the 25th minute when Julie Shreckhise took a pass from Sidney Gardner and drilled it into the back of the net.

Waynesboro shut down its side of the pitch the rest of the way in the first half.

“They got the first goal,” Waynesboro coach Dani Almarode said. “Five minutes after that the girls realized that they had to play.”

The Little Giants tied up the match seven minutes later when Taylor Sayre led Vicki Andersen with a pass that was sent home past a diving Claire Trainum for Fort.

“I thought we both played well tonight,” Andersen said. “We have played together for a long time, so we’re used to it.”

As the Little Giants’ forwards, they kept the Fort defense on its toes all night.

Another goal by Ali Zook at the 10-minute mark gave the Little Giants the lead for good, but the story of the first half was not the three goals. It was eight saves made by Trainum.

Trainum was disaster control for a Fort team that was kept on its heels by the hometown “wee giants.”

Trainum single-handedly gave the Indians a chance going into the second half down only one goal instead of by what very easily could have been a five- or six-goal deficit.

“Claire has done a great job for us all year long,” Fort coach Brad Morris said. “She put in the time. Last year she sat the bench behind Casey Breeden, one of the best keepers in the district, but she worked hard, has a good work ethic and does a really good job.”

The Little Giants pulled away in the second half as the Indians had trouble getting the ball out of their zone.

“My assistant coach and I were [saying] that the forwards needed to get back on defense,” Almarode said. “They did a good job of that in the second half to get us out of a lull.”

During a two-minute stretch in the second half, Waynesboro added two more goals to ice the game.

Sayre scored the first off a deflected shot by Trainum, while Andersen scored the second off her own corner kick.

“We trust each other,” Sayre said about her fellow forward. “We’ve been playing together since we were 12, so we have a lot of fun with this.”

The Little Giants’ Mirka Trnka added the final goal on a header off of an Andersen assist.

Despite the outcome, Trainum received nothing but praise from her coach.

“They were just down here a lot,” Morris said. “Claire had a great performance at Lee and she just continues to do it. She played well here and I expect her to just keep improving.”