‘It’s an adrenaline rush honestly’: Blue Devils’ Fohey stymies Raiders with series of saves

QUINCY — Having a 6-foot, athletic, talkative and charismatic goalkeeper is kind of like having a warm, cozy blanket the Quincy High School girls soccer team can find comfort in.

The Blue Devils don’t take that for granted.

“Taylor is a badass,” senior defender Hope Lenz said of her teammate, Taylor Fohey. “Obviously, I’m going to mark and clear and make sure she’s OK. But I seriously know she’s going to save what comes her way. She’s amazing.”

Fohey’s effort Friday night allowed the Blue Devils to secure the first leg of the city rivalry.

The McKendree-bound basketball player reminded everyone she could be a collegiate shot stopper by making eight saves in the 2-0 victory over Quincy Notre Dame at Advance Physical Therapy Field.

Fohey is the first to note she got a little help from her friends with Rian Moore clearing one scoring chance off the backline and Lenz and her fellow defenders taking away counterattacks, but her effort in stonewalling QND forward Makayla Patton and winning flighted balls gave QHS the advantage.

No moment was bigger than four minutes into the second half with the Blue Devils leading 1-0 when Patton made a run from the right wing into the box. Fohey cut down the angle and saved Patton’s first shot, then scrambled to make two more saves on rebounds before Moore cleared the ball.

Her length, physicality and athleticism were all showcased in one sequence.

“It’s an adrenaline rush honestly,” Fohey said. “Having (Moore) being able to read those balls wherever they come from, whether it’s a tip off the crossbar or a tip off my hand, her being back there to clear that is big. It’s not just her. It’s any of the defenders.

“We all have a lot of trust in each other. That builds our motivation and our power moving forward to the next play.”

Foehy’s strong play started with knocking a corner kick out of the air in the first half and controlling the penalty area the entire time.

“I had a good warmup,” Fohey said. “I was getting to a lot of balls I’m not usually confident on, and so that rolled over into the game a lot. I was a little hesitant in the first half because we were playing kind of sloppy. I just felt we were really disconnected. We were trying to flight a lot of balls instead of just possessing them.

“We got that under control, and I think from there we trusted each other and played our game.”

The defenders trusted each other and the fact Fohey was always there.

“When the ball’s coming and when we’re transitioning, it’s still really important that we’re still looking, still checking our shoulder, still making sure we know what’s coming on,” Lenz said. “There’s so much movement going on because up top they were pushing so much. At times we were like, ‘Who do we mark?’ We had to communicate that, sort it out and connect it.”

The result was the Blue Devils’ third shutout of the season.

“She’s a very good goalie and made some really good saves on some of our shots,” QND coach Mark Thomas said of Fohey. “She played big.”