The Wayland varsity girls’ soccer team came away with a moral victory Wednesday evening after fighting state-ranked Forest Hills Eastern to a 1-1 tie.

Coach Ben Sleeman called it a back and forth (O-K Gold) conference battle.

The Hawks opened the scoring on a through ball behind the Wildcat defense which was slipped past junior goalkeeper Lilly Bolliger to give the visitors a 1-0 lead early into the match.

“However,” Sleeman noted, “the Wildcats would not trail for long as a nice combination build up between Kennedy Thelen and Amanda Brown resulted in Brown’s 16th goal of the season, and a record tying 12th assist for Thelen.

“The remainder of the half and the game was full of chances for both teams to take control, but both keepers prevented any further damage and he final whistle sounded on a hard fought 1-1 draw.

Bolliger made eight saves on nine shots in the gam,e bringing her season total to 92 saves and an 81% save percentage.

The draw brought the Lady Wildcats overall season record to 6-6-1  and 3-5-1 in the O-K Gold.

The girls take to the road Friday traveling at  Zeeland West for a rescheduled nonleague matchup with the Dux at 6:45 p.m.