print page | send as email | email editor

Jackson Hole High School senior goalkeeper Kathleen Eastman celebrates after blocking the third of four shots in a shoot-out with Buffalo, lifting the Broncs to their-third straight state soccer title Saturday in Sheridan. PHOTO BY DAVE ADSIT

View our entire photo gallery >>

Kathleen Eastman felt the emotion well up inside her and slowly began to tear up.

This wasn’t after the game, mind you. It was during.

Jackson and Buffalo ended overtime of Saturday’s Class 3A girls soccer title game in Sheridan in a 0-0 deadlock, meaning the game would be decided in a shoot-out. Eastman, the Broncs’ senior goalkeeper, knew her team’s title chances lay square in her thickly gloved hands.

“When overtime ended, I started to cry a little,” Eastman said. “There was so much pressure. I didn’t want to lose. I was so nervous.”

Eastman turned the most nerve-racking moment of her prep career into her brightest. She stopped three of Buffalo’s four shots (even denying one attempt twice after a violation) to propel Jackson to a 3-1 shoot-out win and a third-consecutive state title. The Broncs finished their season with a 16-0 record.

“Eastman was amazing,” coach Tom Ralston said. “It was her moment, and she shined.”

The best-of-5 shoot-out went only four rounds. Broncs senior forward Stefanie Schulz scored to put Jackson up 3-1 after four rounds, thus ending the contest. After Schulz’s shot hit the back of the net, her teammates mobbed her, forming a throng of screaming, celebrating Broncs on the field.

The title celebration was under way.

“I was so pumped,” Eastman said. “I will remember that moment forever.”

The win was even more emotional considering the adversity the Broncs endured in Sheridan. The team opened the tournament when freshman Jessica Freeze scored three times in a 6-0 win over Torrington on Thursday. The victory, however, was marred when senior sweeper Abbie Moulder went down with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

“It was a hard thing to lose Abbie,” Broncs senior defender Kiki Zaist said. “She was a huge part of this team. But everyone took it upon themselves to play for her and for each other.”

Ralston put Emily Overton at sweeper and moved Schulz from forward to outside back to fill in for Moulder on Friday against Lander. Pam Arland took Schulz’s spot at forward.

The Broncs responded with a 3-1 win. Hayden Shea scored a first-half goal to give Jackson a  halftime lead. Freeze scored early in the second half to extend the lead to 2-0.

Lander came back with its only goal when it hooked a long free kick over Eastman’s head into the goal. It was just the fifth goal given up by Eastman and the Broncs in 15 games. Jackson, though, would put the game away on a Shea penalty kick later in the half.

The win, again, came with a price. Forward Annie Milburn was lost for the remainder of the tournament after she hyperextended and partially tore ligaments in her knee during the first half.

Sophomore Danielle Krause was inserted into the lineup to replace Milburn for Saturday’s title game. The lineup changes weren’t easy on the Broncs.

“If we would have had the adversity in injuries earlier in the year, I am not sure we would have responded as well,” Ralston said. “The girls prepared themselves for this moment, and they did what they needed to do to win.”

The Broncs entered the title game knowing Buffalo had given them their toughest test of the year. Jackson pulled out a 3-1 overtime win over Buffalo on April 29. This meeting would be even tighter.

Each team had a few scoring chances through 90 minutes of regulation and two 10-minute overtime periods. When it was over, though, the score remained 0-0.

As the game headed to a shoot-out, Eastman’s nerves began to build. Her goalkeeper coach, Brendan Schulte, however, helped put things in perspective.

“He told me, ‘Your goal is to make one save,’” Eastman said. “He said, ‘Go have fun with it.’”

Jackson won the coin toss and opted to shoot second. Eastman stopped Buffalo’s first kick near the top left of the goal. The referee, however, ruled Eastman left her line early, a violation that results in a re-kick. Not fazed, Eastman made a spectacular kick-save on the re-kick.

“I just said to myself, ‘Alright, make the save again,’” Eastman said. “After I did, that got me so pumped. I knew we were going to win.”

Madison Pachoe put Jackson up 1-0 when she scored on the Broncs’ first kick. The Broncs then went up 2-0 after an Eastman save and a Freeze goal in the second round.

Buffalo finally got one past Eastman on its third kick, a shot into the top corner that deflected off Eastman’s hand. Shea, meanwhile, pushed her kick off the crossbar, bringing Buffalo to within one after three rounds.

But this was Eastman’s show. She made her third save on Buffalo’s fourth kick, meaning Jackson needed just one goal in its final two attempts to win. There would be no fifth round, as Schulz scored to give the Broncs the title.

Ralston said he did not practice penalty kicks with his team this year.

“There have been years where we do penalty kicks every practice and tracked stats and save percentages,” he said. “It didn’t work out for us those years, and I thought we psyched ourselves out by overthinking. This year we left it in the hands of our girls to go out and be scorers from the point and an athlete on the goal line. Everyone performed beautifully.”

The shoot-out was, by all accounts, a stunning performance by Eastman.

“What Kathleen did was amazing,” Zaist said. “She showed everything she has.”

For the Broncs and their nine seniors, it was a memorable title.

“The girls learned to love each other and believe in themselves,” Ralston said. “If they keep that with them for the rest of their lives, no other statistics matter.”