Norkus protects Bobcats’ lead and state bid

By Dan Angell For the News & Messenger
Published: May 28, 2008

Kristen Norkus never had a chance to move once the whistle blew. Even if she had wanted to, her teammates wouldn’t have let her get away after her performance.
Twice in the final minute of Battlefield’s Northwest Regional soccer semifinal, Norkus had to hold off a threat from Colonial Forge to protect the Bobcats’ 1-0 lead. After she survived a penalty kick and a corner kick, the Eagles finally ran out of time, leaving Norkus to collapse under the hugs of her teammates.
“I’m not even sure I did (survive), I’m still shaking,” Norkus said after clinching Battlefield’s first-ever trip to the state tournament. “As soon as (the referee) moves the hand up, they turned around and started sprinting towards me. It’s a good feeling. You want to catch the first one to you and hug them.”
After what she went through in the last minute, the hugs were warranted. After Colonial Forge’s Caitlin Hickey slipped by the Bobcats’ defense, the only play Norkus had was to drag her down, setting up what she called “a no-win situation for a goalie”.
“The only thing I hoped was that she misses it,” Norkus said of having to face Hickey. “You have to read them perfectly, especially at the high school level, because they can curve the post. You’d have to be 6-foot-2 to get a jump on that, and I’m not 6-2, so I don’t have that advantage.”
Battlefield coach Kevin Hilton, who jokingly thanked his players for giving him a mild heart attack in the fiorkus wouldn’t try to outguess Hickey.
“Don’t guess, react,” he said. “React to the shot. We talked about it last week, take a step off the line, then react to the shot. Fortunately, (Hickey) missed wide, so she didn’t have to make the save.”
But unfortunately for Norkus’ nerves, the danger wasn’t over. With just seconds remaining, the Eagles earned a corner, forcing the Bobcats defense to step up one final time.
“I saw three of my defenders, which we’d been lacking on marking,” Norkus said. “We leave the back post open. But they learned from it, because three of them were centered around it.”
It was enough to make Sahar Aflaki’s goal stand up, although like the rest of the Bobcats, Aflaki gave all the credit to Norkus as she walked off the field, calling her “the best goalie ever” for sealing Battlefield’s trip to the state tournament.
“I’m glad our team came together,” Aflaki said through tears of joy. “I’m just glad that we made it to states, finally.”