H-D/CAL girls soccer posts first program victory

HAMPTON – Ask foreign exchange student from Germany Franka Schmid if she knows the past history of Hampton-Dumont/CAL girls’ soccer and she said she’s been made aware.

In the past, it was a victory for the Bulldogs to score a goal.

However, Schmid’s free kick goal in the second half on Thursday, April 22 against Garner-Hayfield-Ventura proved to be the only one H-D/CAL needed to post the first-ever match win, 1-0.

“Yes,” Schmid says of the background. “I’m proud to be part of the team that won here today. I hope I can help (change the program’s culture). I will be gone in June, so I will be here just for this season, but still I try to do as much as I can.”

First-year head coach Michael Murphy says that Schmid has brought what the team has needed although Schmid has been playing back home for the past three years.

“She’s a great part to the program because she gets to bring the culture of soccer to the program,” Murphy said. “She gets to be that leader with everyone and helping understand the sport that she has grown up around and with that not many here really have. She’s been a great leader, we have four captains and she was one that was selected by the team. The team loves to look up to her and learn from her. So, she’s done a good job with that.

“She’s continuing to kind of learn how it is to be a part of growth and not necessarily be a part of what has already been established, so it’s a good challenge for her, too.”

Scoreless after the first half, Schmid was awarded a free kick after a foul on teammate Zoe Erdman and she made it count. Even though she has that experience and had scored on a free kick in the team’s opener against the Cardinals, she said she was far from calm.

“Not really, no,” Schmid said. “I was pretty nervous. I mean, the first game we played Garner, I scored a goal by kicking a free kick, too. So, I knew that the goalie was…the goalie was good, but the goalie doesn’t catch the ball all the time, so it made it a little bit easier, but I was nervous, yes.

“It wasn’t the best kick, but it was a goal, so it doesn’t matter, I think.”

After that, the Bulldogs were able to hold strong defensively against GHV the rest of the way and goalkeeper Faith Grover tallied eight saves on eight shots by the Cardinals and unlike previous years, she had to work considerably less with the help of the defenders on this team.

“I’ll tell you I’m a little biased,” Murphy said. “I was a defender when I was in college, so I am a defend-first, attack-second type of person and since day one, we have continued to make sure that it’s okay to defend and let people be in front of you. And allow that to be a comfort and from there: they don’t shoot, they don’t score, you can’t lose and from there you build your confidence in your strengths and they’ve only continued to embrace that and very proud of them for that.”

Schmid added, “I think we have improved a lot the past weeks. Garner was our first game, so we didn’t have a lot of experience. Some girls have never played and this team is a completely new team, so we had never played before together, so it was our first game to experience something and just to see how our soccer was going. Our fourth game, today, we won so this shows that practice pays off.”

H-D/CAL improved to 1-3 and had opened the season with a 6-2 loss to the Cardinals. The Bulldogs are now 1-3 lifetime against GHV.

Murphy says this only shows how much this team has improved.

“Starting from day one their working very hard,” Murphy said. “The number one goal for the team is we get better every day. You are going to have struggles and that is how you respond that matters. Every game we have gotten better and every game they have gotten more comfortable and confident and continue to work together as a team. Today, again, is that opportunity to show ourselves we can do it and they took care of business today and definitely deserve it.”

The Bulldogs made 16 shots and six shots on goal with GHV’s Chloe Frank making four saves.

Next up for coach Murphy’s team was a home contest against Grand View Christian (2-4) on Tuesday, April 27, a team they have made the most headway against despite not getting the previously much-eluded win.

“The outlook is to make the most of every game,” Murphy said. “Every day they step on the field they hope to have more opportunities like this today where we can celebrate our hard work and success. The days we do have struggles, we maybe find ourselves on the other end of the spectrum, it’s only a learning opportunity and opportunity to respond and grow.”

H-D/CAL 1

Garner-Hayfield-Ventura 0

GHV 0 0 - 1

H-D/CAL 0 1 - 1

Scoring – Franka Schmid (free kick) no time available.

Saves – GHV, Chloe Frank 4. H-D/CAL, Faith Grover 8.