SIDNEY — Larkyn Vordemark was planning to be in top condition entering her senior season, but she was involved in a car accident a couple of weeks ago and has been working to regain full strength since.

While she was a little off at times in a season opener against Northmont, she came away with the biggest play in the last minute.

Vordemark, who gave a verbal commitment to Southern Indiana last month, scored a goal on a breakaway in the final minute to lift the Yellow Jackets to a 1-0 victory over the Thunderbolts on Saturday at Sidney’s soccer field.

“I saw (Northmont) stepping with the high line. Obviously, we knew we had to break that down,” Vordemark said. “I saw her coming, so I just cut it. And I was like, ‘Well, they’re going to close me faster.’ So I just hit it, and luckily, it went in.”

Vordemark threw up her hands after making the goal while the Sidney fans in attendance roared. She was quickly surrounded by teammates, who helped celebrate a last-second victory.

The squad is hoping for more celebrations this year. Aside from a goal of earning a Miami Valley League title, they’re also eying a deep postseason run. With the OHSAA’s expansion of postseason play in all team sports, the Yellow Jackets have dropped from Division I to D-III.

“We just want to go as far as we can and work together as a team,” Vordemark said. “And I feel like we’re so capable of doing it if we come together and just listen to coach and take feedback and put it into our game.”

Sidney coach Kevin Veroneau said the squad made many early-season mistakes, but he was happy it pulled out a win, especially after close games with the Thunderbolts in recent years in season openers.

“When you’re in at the top of adversity, you hope your older players, seasoned players, will step up and take it to the next level,” Veroneau said. “And clearly, Larkyn decided that she was going to just take it on her own, and she was just going to take care of business on her own at that moment.

“So Kenzi (Koester) got the ball into her in a nice, dangerous position, and Larkyn just went at them. We talked about if we did that at that moment, why couldn’t we do that more?”

Sidney controlled the ball more and had more shots on goal, but Northmont’s defenders usually seemed to find ways to get in front of the ball and get a piece of most shot attempts.

The Thunderbolts had a couple of close calls, including one in the middle of the second half that junior goalkeeper Madison Piatt was able to jump up and deflect; it went just over the goal and onto the back of the net.

“We had some good moments,” Veroneau said. “We’re just inconsistent right now in our play and work rate. If we want to get to our goal to be the first team (in program history) to win a district title and get to regionals, we have to be a lot more consistent with our performance. With the way they’ve redone the divisions, we have a legitimate chance to get to regionals. There’s just a lot of mistakes out there today we have to clean up.”

Vordemark has 73 career goals to her credit after Saturday and was a first team all-state selection in Div. I a year ago. She had played well in Sidney’s summer activities, but the car accident on the way back from a training facility in Minster about two weeks ago has left her sore.

“I’ve been trying to get out of feeling like that,” Vordemark said.

She fell to the ground several times Saturday while enduring physical coverage from Northmont defenders but was able to come up late.

Veroneau said he was happy with Vordemark and all the squad’s players playing through adverse situations.

“We were struggling to have things go our way today, and it’s nice to pull off the win and start off on the right foot,” Veroneau said.

Vordemark said she hopes it was a good learning experience for the veteran squad.

“We should be good. We’ve got a lot of experience, and our freshman, Anara (Shroyer) and Bailey (McCutchins), they’re catching on really fast,” Vordemark said.

“We just have got to be humble and get there.”

The Yellow Jackets are scheduled to travel to Stebbins on Monday for their first MVL game of the year and to Lima Bath on Thursday for a nonconference game.

Reach Sidney Daily News editor Bryant Billing at 937-538-4822, or follow @BryantBillingSDN on Facebook or @TopBillingSport on X (Twitter).