Laramie girls forge tie at Cheyenne East

May 3—CHEYENNE — Mere inches kept either Cheyenne East or Laramie from leaving Okie Blanchard Stadium victorious Friday night.

The Plainsmen had the wind at their backs and momentum firmly in their direction in the 80th minute when they sent a shot on goal. East goalkeeper Aryana Booth saw the shot dip and played it to her left to try to preserve the tie.

Laramie freshman Shaylee Lucero ran onto the rebound and touched it just right of the frame and out of bounds as time expired in the 1-1 draw.

"I will 100% take a tie over a loss any day," Booth said. "I was doing whatever I could to get a hand on the ball and keep it out of the goal. I saw Kaylee Kern coming right at me as the ball came in. She would have been there for a rebound, so I tried to play it wide.

"Laramie had another good chance on it, but we lucked out, and it didn't go in."

In the 24th, a Booth sliding save after a pass left Laramie sophomore Madelyn Martin one-on-one with her. It was the second such save for Booth during a five-minute stretch.

"We had nothing to lose, so we went out and played with all our hearts and tried to have fun," Booth said. "We went out without fear or any worries of being scored on, so I was able to play aggressively and make a lot of tough saves."

Booth finished the match with six stops.

"(Booth) had a really great game, and she's been coming along all season and getting better every game," East coach Rebecca Valdez said. "It's exciting to have her playing this well heading into the postseason."

East (4-4-6 overall, 2-4-6 Class 4A East Conference) played with the wind at its back in the first half, and mustered six of its eight total shots and five of its six shots on goal during the opening 40 minutes.

Senior Haley Pierson gave the Thunderbirds a 1-0 lead in the 33rd with a hard shot from just outside the penalty area that eluded Laramie goalkeeper McKenna Barham.

"I saw Laramie's defenders running full speed to the ball once it got past (East forward Jordan Griess), and I wanted to try to get a shot before they got to it," Pierson said. "I ran full speed toward the ball and got to it before they did, and got a pretty good shot out of it."

Laramie took a more aggressive posture during the second half, which generated 10 of its 13 overall shots and six of its eights attempts on frame.

"We made some system changes at halftime to put a little more pressure on," Plainsmen coach Kim Whisenant said. "We wanted to put the heat on them, and we did. Even though we weren't able to get a second one in the back of the net, I'm proud of the kids' resilience and fight to come back and nearly pull it out in the second half."

Laramie finally broke through on a direct kick from 32 yards out by sophomore Morgan Hansen in the 73rd minute. The Plainsmen drew a foul right of the goal, and Hansen lofted her shot over East's four-person wall and into the upper left corner of the goal to level the score 1-1.

Hansen only recently started taking free kicks for Laramie.

"I knew I had to put that in, and it was thrilling that it happened," Hansen said. "I didn't think it was going in when I hit it. I knew (Booth) was kind of off her line, so I tried to play a little loft ball in and give our team what it needed.

"That gave us some energy, lifted everyone's spirits and helped us get more chances."

Hansen had another direct kick on a tough angle from the right side just outside of the 18. Booth came off her line to make a low, diving save.

LARAMIE 1, EAST 1

Halftime: East 1-0.

Goals: East, Pierson (Simkins), 33. Laramie, Hansen (direct kick), 73.

Shots: Laramie 13, East 8. Shots on goal: Laramie 7, East 6. Saves: Laramie 5 (Barham); East 6 (Booth).

Corner kicks: Laramie 6, East 2. Offsides: Laramie 2, East 0. Fouls: Laramie 7, East 8.

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Jeremiah Johnke is the WyoSports editor. He can be reached at jjohnke@wyosports.net or 307-633-3137. Follow him on X at @jjohnke.