Bison don’t quit, advance to finals

By Corine Gatti

Published: May 20, 2008

SWOOPE – Buffalo Gap coach Al Zeller said his girls soccer team would never give up against Wilson Memorial. It showed on Tuesday in the Shenandoah District tournament semifinal on Tuesday night with Gap winning 2-1 after four five-minute overtime peroids and two sets of free kicks.
“I don’t know what it is with the Gap girls, they have a never die attitude against Wilson,” Zeller said. “That’s with all sports against Wilson, but I didn’t want tonight to be my last game, and they didn’t want this to be their last. They really stepped it up.”
The match was knotted in the first half and both teams were in a deadlock until Gap freshmen Sophia Irvin kicked the winning goal in the final round of free kicks that sent Gap to the championship game against Riverheads on Thursday night.
“I was all nerves,” said Irvin. “It was just me and the ball and I knew I had to make it work. It feels so great.”
Irvin was nicknamed “mouse” by her coach at the beginning of the season.
“She’s a great kid, she came in as a transfer and did not say word,” Zeller said. “But she hit all the tough plays at practice and I told her that she was going to do that in our games, and she came out strong tonight, she did a great job.”
Wilson knew the match was going to tough.
“Gap is well coached and we knew coming in here that it was going to be a dog fight,” said Wilson coach Scott Crist. “Gap deserves to go to the championship, they are a good team and Zeller has done a great job with them.”
Crist was looking already to the future.
“The sun will rise again tomorrow, and we will be back next year.”
This is Zeller’s last season with the Bison. Leaving with a trophy would just be icing.
“I just want these girls to go as far as they could go,” Zeller said. “It wasn’t just to win for me, but for them. It has been a privilege to coach them. They area great group of girls.”