Lightning-fast start propels Hiland girls soccer to first regional final in program history

The Hiland Lady Hawks soccer program went where no other team in the program’s history has gone before Tuesday, Oct. 28 at Dover’s Crater Stadium, when the Lady Hawks used a white-hot start to down Norwayne 4-1 to reach the Division V regional finals.

That marks the farthest tournament run any Lady Hawks’ soccer team has ever made in the program, and head coach Conner Lee said it comes from a group that has consistently improved and earned the right to play for a chance to go to state.

“This is special,” Lee said. “The girls have worked hard and deserve this. That expectation was always there. It just took a lot of building to get to where we are now.”

The big start

After these two teams went toe to toe earlier this season in what resulted in a 2-1 Hiland victory, everyone figured this to be a low-scoring battle.

Italee Mullet never got that memo.

Hiland took three shots early in the game, and all three resulted in Mullet scores. The first strike came less than one minute into the fray, Mullet slashing home a winner off a feed from Ally Mullet.

Five minutes later they duplicated that feat, and in the 16th minute, Italee Mullet made it a hat trick off an assist from Minka Mullet.

That was all the scoring that would be needed for Hiland.

“Setting the tone that early was huge for us,” Lee said. “I think we only got the ball in our offensive half three times in the first half, and we scored three goals. They were taking it to us, but we stayed composed and calm.”

He said Italee Mullet’s performance was one for the ages.

“She’s had a great season,” Lee said. “She’s felt that she should have scored more, so it was nice for her to save them up for regionals.”

“This was so unexpected,” Italee Mullet said of the fast start. “It was crazy. We weren’t expecting it to be like this because we know (Norwayne) is so good. It was so much fun to make history like this.”

Once she got rolling, she said she was simply calling for the ball, and her teammates were finding her. She said every time she had an open look she was confident she was going to score.

An oddity

Hiland (14-6-1) made hay in the first half, outscoring Norwayne (15-6-0). It would be easy to believe that was when Hiland did its best work.

That was not the case. After the three early Hiland scores, the Bobcats seized control of momentum and forced Hiland to play defense the rest of the first half, and when Piper Moore scored to trim the Norwayne deficit to 3-1, the Bobcats had major momentum.

Any momentum disappeared seven minutes into the second half when Chanelle Kellogg found Ally Mullet for a beautiful goal.

The Lady Hawks never looked back, playing a nearly flawless second half to emerge victorious.

“They had all the momentum going into halftime, and they could have really come out and put the pressure on us,” Lee said. “Getting that fourth goal early was huge. After that, we took the wind out of their sails. We settled in and played a terrific second half.”

As the lone senior, Kellogg said making this unprecedented run is the stuff of dreams.

“We knew this was going to be a challenge,” Kellogg said of a season that consisted of herself as the lone senior and just two other juniors. “But we’ve got so much talent in our younger classes, and we all work together and play together so well.”

She said coming into this game having already beaten Norwayne once was a confidence booster for the young Lady Hawks, and getting off to the fast start helped solidify the belief they could get the job done.

“It’s been pretty magical,” Kellogg said.

Magical enough to have gone to a place no team before has ever gone in the program.