Davison’s Hail Mary Saves Lady Cats

by Ken Brown

HARDWICK – The Hazen Union girls’ soccer team salvaged a miraculous draw with Oxbow over Homecoming Weekend with a last second goal from Caitlyn Davison, helping them improve to 1-4-1 on the season.

Caitlyn Davison sent the Hardwick Homecoming crowd into a frenzy Saturday afternoon with an improbable equalizer with one second left on the clock, giving the home team a 1-1 draw with Division III Oxbow (see a clip of HCTV coverage of the score at https://youtu.be/Ha5gxOxQk0w?t=6464 ). Freshman Natalie Spear connected on a free kick that was mishandled by Hazen keeper Madeline Kaiser with eight minutes left in regulation to give Oxbow a 1-0 lead, in what looked to be the game winning score. Junior midfielder Caitlyn Davison had other ideas as she settled the ball on the left side of the field with time running down, spun and launched a perfectly placed shot in the upper right corner that ripped the back of the net as time expired. The Lady Cats broke free with seven left in the second overtime with what appeared to be the game winner, but they were ruled offsides. Ella Renaud and Kaiser combined to make 17 stops on the day. Makenna Simmons made nine saves for Oxbow as they improved to 1-3-2 on the season.

“Oxbow is a Division III team and the girls did a great job playing them even throughout the match. We fought hard down the stretch to create any opportunity for the equalizer and Caitlyn’s shot crossing the goal line with one second left to send the game to overtime was highly unusual. Our crowd was great and went wild and we had some chances in overtime and a great look at a game winner, but it was disallowed due to offsides,” said head coach Harry Besett.

Hazen will travel to BFA-Fairfax on Wednesday and is scheduled to host Winooski next Tuesday.