AURORA | Elyse Bailey has seen her share of goalies — in field hockey and soccer — so she had a good idea where she wanted to put her penalty stroke attempt Saturday afternoon.
Smoky Hill’s standout junior midfielder converted her one-on-one chance with Grandview’s goalie during the third quarter of a matchup at Legacy Stadium, which at the time gave the Buffs a two-goal advantage.
A score in the closing seconds by the Wolves made Bailey’s score the game-winner in a 2-1 victory that moved coach Lisa Griffiths’ Smoky Hill field hockey team to 2-0 on the young season. Senior Mollie Keating had the other goal for the Buffs, who haven’t won their first two games of a season since 2010.
Senior Emma Cary tallied with 14 seconds remaining for coach Alex Smith’s Grandview team, which is now 0-1-1 after playing back-to-back contests.
The Buffaloes — who defeated Dakota Ridge 1-0 two days earlier — now face a difficult stretch of games with Kent Denver (Aug. 22), Regis Jesuit (Aug. 24) and Arapahoe (Aug. 28) ahead in the next week-plus. Smoky Hill lost to those three teams by a combined score of 19-1 last season.
Grandview, meanwhile, has an Aug. 23 contest against Cherry Creek followed by an Aug. 28 contest against Regis Jesuit.
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Colorado Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
Smoky Hill 2, Grandview 1
Score by quarters:
Grandview 0 0 0 1 — 1
Smoky Hill 1 0 1 0 — 2
Grandview goal: Emma Cary. Smoky Hill goal: Elyse Bailey, Molly Keating. Smoky Hill assist: Henley Whitehead