Oct. 31, 2007

Portsmouth, OHIO - The Shawnee State University (Ohio) men's soccer team ended its season on a positive note Sunday. Not just because the team defeated Berea College in their final game, but because the members possibly saved the lives of three people on the return trip.

"Our bus was headed east on I-64, between Grayson, Ky., and the Industrial Parkway, when we saw a deer ahead," said head coach Ron Goodson. "It was about a hundred yards ahead, so we had plenty of time to break, but a white Chevy SUV - traveling west on I-64 -swerved to miss the deer, crossed the median, plunged over an embankment of about 15 to 20 feet, hit a tree, which it cut in half, rolled over several times and landed on its top in a creek."

Goodson said it was about 7:45 p.m., the highway and the ravine were dark, and there was no vehicle behind them, so if his soccer team had not reacted, those in the crash may not have been found for a long time.

He said the bus pulled over.

"I was the first person off the bus, but it didn't take long before the players ran past me," Goodson said. "We grabbed a flashlight and our medical kit, and Kurt Rininger, Paul Adkins and I were the first to the vehicle, along with several others, including Drew Sampson of Wheelersburg."

He said they had to break a window and begin to extract people from the vehicle. First out was a small girl, followed by her grandmother and then her mother, the only three occupants in the vehicle. The Carter County (Ky.) Sheriff's Office identified the people rescued as Scarlet Bailey, 33, and Wynter Bailey, 5, both of Lexington, Ky., and Sharon Johnson, 63, of Ashland, Ky.

Another member of the team, Weston Thobaben, of Brooklyn, Ohio, a freshman walk-on player with Emergency Medical Technician training, and an off-duty EMT who was passing by, checked out the people for injuries.

"We had them up and out of there, checked out to make sure they were all right before police arrived," Goodson said. "One of our players gave the grandmother his shoes to climb the steep ravine because the ground was rough. The five-year-old wrapped her arms around one of our players and wouldn't let go."

He said he is proud of his team members and their quick reaction to the accident. "The grandmother asked us where we were from, and we told her Shawnee State University, and she said, `Thank you, you saved our lives'," Goodson said. "It put a real good end to the season the way they responded, away from soccer. I'm just proud of the way they responded."