Sacred Heart’s Kendall Groza, center, passes to a teammate during their match against Lexington Catholic at Sacred Heart. Groza scored the two goals in their 2-1 win.
Aug. 15, 2016
Kendall Groza comes from a very athletic family.
Her late grandfather, Alex, was an All-American basketball player at the University of Kentucky.
Her late great uncle, Lou “The Toe,” was an NFL All-Pro kicker and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Her mother, Tracey, played on UCLA’s 1990 NCAA championship volleyball team.
Monday night Groza showed off her athletic pedigree in a rematch of last year’s girls’ soccer state final. Doing it with her head, and her toe, Groza scored both of Sacred Heart Academy’s goals in its 2-1 win over visiting Lexington Catholic. The Valkyries beat the Knights 1-0 in last fall’s title tilt.
“I think it just kind of re-establishes that we are the best team in the state,” said Groza, a 5-foot-81/2 junior forward. “And (it shows) that even though we lost a lot of our former players, that were getting a lot of minutes and made really big contributions, that we’re still the best team in the state. We’ve worked really hard in preseason and we came out and played them again and just established that.”
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In the season-opener for both, it was Sacred Heart, which is ranked No. 16 in the USA Today preseason Super 25, that controlled most of the match. However, it was LexCath that scored first.
In the 24th minute, Cassie Corbett rocketed a free kick from about 25 yards out over the outstretched arm of Valkyries’ keeper Sarah Stodghill and into the net.
It was the first goal given up by Stodghill and Sacred Heart, which set a state record last year with 22 shutouts (including 12 straight to end the season), since Sept. 27, 2015.
“They were really rattled after giving up that first goal,” Valkyries coach Jaclyn Puntillo said.
Although Sacred Heart seemed somewhat apprehensive to shoot early on the Valkyries, who lost four starters (including Miss Soccer Claire Fell) to graduation, eventually found its collective footing.
The Valkyries scored the equalizer two minutes, 28 seconds before halftime when Groza headed in Sarah Buse’s corner kick.
“It was a big one for me because it was kind of like a remake of our state championship game last year against them with Sarah Buse crossing it in, it was me and Claire Fell in the box,” Groza said of a play that ended with Fell heading in the match’s only goal. “It was basically like a replay of that.”
The match wasn’t deadlocked for long, though.
Thirty-three seconds into the second half, Groza found the back of the net when she knocked in a cross from sophomore Ashley Durik.
“Kendall’s been a varsity player for two years, one of our best technical players, by far. I think this year that she came in a little bit more focused and knew kind of what her goals were and she’s learned how to use her strengths to her benefit,” Puntillo said.
“Kendall’s a great player in that she knows exactly what she’s going to do with the ball before she does it. So that makes her really good in those tight spaces, which is how she scored both of her goals today. So we’re looking forward to seeing what she can do this year.”