The Wayland girls’ varsity soccer te
am, on a roll of late, came into a showdown with O-K Gold Conference unbeaten Middleville Thornapple Kellogg with hopes of catching the Trojans.
But it was not to be, one goal shy, in a 2-1 overtime battle at Wayland Middle School.
Lady Wildcats’ coach Ben Sleeman characterized the event as, “A bitter conference rivalry game on a night that started out rainy and ended with the sun shining pitting two of the top teams in the league against one another on Monday night.”
Thornapple Kellogg came into the game undefeated in the conference and the Wildcats entered with only two conference losses and last week scored a historic victory over perennial power South Christian.
“The game started with the home team nearly taking an early lead and they applied pressure throughout most of the first half,” Sleeman noted.” Unfortunately, it was the visiting side that scored first on a break away which keeper Hannah Anderson nearly turned away.”
The score was 1-0 at halftime with the Trojans on top.
The second half started with TK applying more pressure and forcing the Wildcats to defend for long stretches. However, this time it was the home team who capitalized on their chance when Brinley Nieuwenhuis scored her 11th goal of the season to get the girls back into the game and ultimately forced overtime in the contest.
“Both overtime periods were evenly played, but the visitors scored on a nice through ball that found a streaking attacker and she placed the ball into the side netting, not giving Anderson a chance to make the save,” Sleeman said.
The Lady Wildcats had 15 shots on goal and Anderson was credited with eight saves.
The Wildcats pressured, but were unable to score the tying goal and saw them fall to 10-6-1 overall and 5-3 in conference play.
The girls will be on the road this week for the first of their final two conference games against another top team in Catholic Central.
