GIRLS SOCCER: Charloe puts finishing touch on Oologah rout of McLoud

OOLOGAH — With the outcome already decided and only seconds remaining, most players would have been content to let the clock expire.

Allie Charloe wasn’t settling for less.

After intercepting a pass inside the box in the final moments Friday night, the Oologah junior forward blasted a right-footed shot over the goalkeeper from 10 yards out with just eight seconds left, putting an emphatic exclamation point on the Lady Mustangs’ dominant 5-0 victory over McLoud in the Class 3A state quarterfinals.

The late strike was Charloe’s second goal of the night in a match that saw Oologah overwhelm McLoud [8-5] from start to finish.

“They were mouthing the whole time — ‘You’re only up 2, you’re only up 2,’” Charloe said. “I think that just really made us want to score and got us all mad.”

The Lady Mustangs outshot the Lady Redskins 37-2, had an additional 2 goals wiped away by offsides and forced McLoud’s goalkeeper into 14 saves while advancing to the state semifinals for the third-consecutive season.

Oologah [15-1] accomplished all of that without one of its most important players.

Star midfielder Brynlee Sweet was unavailable after receiving a red card in the first-round victory over Locust Grove. Sweet normally handles the Lady Mustangs’ corner kicks, forcing coach Sam Bowers to adjust Friday night.

“We run set pieces on corners,” Bowers said. “We just try to mix it up. I think that's the old football coach in me — you run plays. We spend a lot of time on them, and I've always done that. We have shoe, we have knee, we have waist, we have head and we just make the signal, and then they run them.”

Some of the replacement corner attempts were shaky, but the changes ultimately worked. Oologah scored twice off corner kicks despite Sweet’s absence.

The Lady Mustangs broke through midway through the first half when Avery Duff delivered a corner kick to Avlynn Hill, who finished it into the net with 29:17 remaining for a 1-0 lead.

Charloe nearly doubled the advantage later in the half with a bending shot from 15 yards out, but the McLoud goalkeeper made a diving save.

Six minutes later, Millie Smalygo rattled the crossbar, and Trynity McElhenny fired a shot directly at the goalkeeper after a strong setup from Charloe.

The Lady Redskins' best chance of the opening half came in the final minute, but Emily Valdez missed wide right from inside the box.

Oologah’s pressure intensified after halftime.

With 34:17 remaining, Charloe danced through three defenders before slipping a perfect ground-ball cross to Rylen Walters, who finished at the back side of the goal to make it 2-0.

The Lady Mustangs appeared to score again at the 13:28 mark when Lyla Thomason delivered a ball to Hill for a header into the net, but the goal was waved off for offside.

Charloe got one back moments later anyway.