Martin’s golden goal caps Pirates’ comeback victory over Kewpies in regular season finale

HANNIBAL, Mo. — Abbie Martin never panicked.

Two and a half minutes into overtime of the Hannibal girls soccer team’s regular season finale against Hickman on Monday, Kewpies defender Hattie Hayes’ turnover in the middle of the pitch came right to Martin about 20 yards from the Hickman goal. Martin gathered, turned and rifled a shot to the upper left corner to score the golden goal that punctuated the Pirates’ 3-2 win at the Veterans Sports Complex.

“(Hayes) just made a bad touch, and I saw space,” Martin said. “I saw the left corner of the goal wide open, so I just shot it.”

Pirates freshman midfielder Aly Falconer knew the ball was headed for the back of the net the moment it took flight from Martin’s right foot.

“She had that open space, and I was like, ‘That’s going in,’” Falconer said. “If she didn’t take that shot, I was going to talk to her about that later.”

Hannibal junior midfielder Ashley Martin also had a front-row seat to Martin’s game-winner.

“That was a banger,” Davis said.

Hannibal coach Eric Hill was impressed with Martin’s composure.

“In that moment, you could get so sped up and you could think, ‘I have to shoot now,’” Hill said. “She stayed calm, took a touch, then just fired a shot and left the keeper no chance.

“What I like to see in that moment is that it was something she wasn’t expecting. She wasn’t expecting a gift at her feet like that from the opponent, and she was smart enough and composed enough to pick her head up, see what was in front of her, and deliver a heck of a shot.”

Martin nearly had the deciding goal with 4:30 left in the second half. She volleyed a Davis cross out of the air from 10 yards out, and the ball sailed just over the crossbar.

“That would have been awesome if that would have gone in,” Martin said of this chance. “But it all worked out in the end.”

Davis scored the first goal of the game in the eighth minute. She took a through ball from Martin on the right wing, cut back to the middle, and tried to squeeze the ball past Hickman goalkeeper Paige Freed on the near side. Davis’ high shot deflected off Freed’s gloves and trickled over the line.

This goal stood as the lone tally until the 70th minute. Off a corner from Hickman junior Anna Marinello, freshman Lila Carney found space at the far post and snuck it just inside that post to knot the game at 1. 

Fifteen seconds later, Falconer nearly gave the Pirates the lead back, but her shot off a Davis cross missed just high. Thirty-five seconds after that near-miss, Hayes got behind the Hannibal defense on a free ball, chased it down, and slid it past Hannibal goalkeeper Ava Turner to give the Kewpies a 2-1 lead.

Falconer made amends in the 73rd minute, however. Off another cross from Davis, Falconer used the back of her head to score the equalizing goal and set the stage for Martin to end the game about 15 minutes of real time later.

“I saw Ashley crossing it, and I was like, ‘this is going to hit some part of me at least.’ I didn’t care what part as long as it went in the goal,” Falconer said. “There was a girl in front of me, and I was like, ‘well, I’d rather hit her with the back of my head than the front,’ so I just did a little spin move.”

The Pirates (20-2-2) begin the Class 3 District 4 Tournament on the road against Fort Zumwalt East Saturday at 1 pm. Despite six straight North Central Missouri Conference titles and two 20-win seasons in the last three years, the Pirates have not won a district title since they were in Class 2. Hill said the last two Pirates teams had the talent to advance through the district tournament, but they were without the services of center back Gracie Martin for both postseasons due to a late-season torn ACL each time.

“We didn’t really have a chance to tinker with anything,” Hill said. “We kind of just had to figure it out and go.”

The difference this season? The Pirates are healthy.

“Having everyone available is going to be huge,” Hill said.