Miracle on Warson Road: The Big Story of the Week

Clearly the big story of the week happened right in Ladue. This week, the MICDS field hockey team played the perfect game and won in a squeeker over Villa Duchesne. Here's how they did it:

The 1980 U.S. Olympic “Miracle on Ice” ice hockey team has nothing on the MICDS Rams. In a nail-biter to the end, the Rams pulled the stunner of the year in field hockey, beating mighty Villa Duchesne, 1-0.

The Rams could hardly believe their good fortune. For 60 minutes, the Rams played to perfection. There were no unforced errors in the entire game.

Look for more photos of this game on the Ladue-Frontenac Facebook Page.

When senior  Alex Ettinger drove the ball some 16 yards past Villa keeper Maggie Grzeskoviak, with 2:05 left in the first half,  no one in attendance would ever have believed that would have been the only goal in the game. Kara Zurlinder, freshman had the assist on the goal.

But Ram defenders might have told their spirited net minder Amelia “Emmy” Sprong something like this: “All right lady, we got your one goal, now make it stand up.”

She did.

It wasn’t that Villa didn’t have it chances. They took numerous corner shots, but none got by Sprong. On the flip side, Grzeskoviak played a near-perfect game too, allowing just that one first-half goal.

The Rams could hardly control their emotions.

Did Sprong ever think that solo goal would hold up?

“I was hoping so. I know how strong our defense has been lately. I had a lot of faith in us and I knew our defensive corners were really strong.

As a senior, this is a big deal for me to beat them. We really wanted to win, but it was really serious competition and I think everyone had a good time,” said Sprong.

Sprong faced 13 Villa shots on goal, stopping all of them.

Junior Olivia “LP” Polk was the one basking in the victory.

“This was one of my first games on defense. Usually,  I am playing midfield. I didn’t know that first goal would be it. I thought we should stay strong the whole game.”

Lynn Mittler, Rams’ coach enjoyed the game from the sidelines. “That was the caliber of game that you would expect in the Midwestern Conference playoffs. Villa is such a talented team and the fact we won was a miracle.

Defensively,  we’ve been working very hard to stay calm and composed. We just want to move the ball out of the circle. A huge credit to our goalie and our defense.”

This was a tough loss for Villa’s new head coach, school graduate Meredith Rull.

“We played the second half OK, but we were a little hesitant the first half. They were ready, they took it to us, they really wanted it.

The girls are great, they’ve been doing an awesome job, and we still have three more games this week.”

“I give MICDS all the credit, they are a great team,” said Rull. MICDS improves to 8-5-1, Villa has an 11-5 record.