Girls’ soccer (1-10-1) lost their recent home game against Northwood High on Jan. 12. The team is looking forward to improving their skills at their next away game on Jan. 30 against Northwood High.
Twelve minutes into the first half, the Timberwolves broke through the Bulldogs’ defense and scored the first goal. The Bulldogs started pressing, and with three minutes left in the first half, striker and sophomore Kaylee Whang received a foul. The referee called for a free kick, and Whang scored. The score at halftime was 1-1.
Six minutes into the second half, the Timberwolves almost scored until goalie and freshman Chantal Alexander blocked it. Alexander blocked the Timberwolves’ attempt to score another goal just two minutes later. After a few minutes of pressing against the Bulldogs’ defense, the Timberwolves scored their second goal.
“I think what went well was that we were able to work together as a team and we noticed that a couple of times we had to change our formations based on their attacking players, and so I think that because we were able to adjust that, it showed that we were able to improvise and work well as a team,” right-back and senior Sarah Collins said.
Midfielder and junior Lily Nesland ran up the field, and almost scored but missed. The Bulldogs’ attempted another goal. Soon after, sophomore Sasha-Zoe Del-Rosario and junior Jordana Miller were swapped in for junior Arden Sundaram and senior Sophia Soaf.
With five minutes left, the Timberwolves scored another goal against the Bulldogs, winning the game.
“I think it’s more of just communicating and reading what we do, because there are new players and I think that team chemistry is very important and knowing what a player does and what your teammate does is very critical,” Collins said.
Throughout the game, head girls’ soccer coach Joshua Stringer continuously supported the players by providing advice from the sidelines.
“We were set up to have a mid block-it turned out to be a low block, but our goal was to counterattack on the team, so we had several opportunities to counterattack,” Stringer said. “Yesterday we prepared for the match with a tactical session, and so today my goal was to make sure that we executed those tactics. Early on in the game, I had to remind players of what we had worked on yesterday in training and during the game.”
In the future, the team hopes to continue improving team chemistry.
“I felt really comfortable with the team,” Alexander said. “I actually kind of fit in in a way. We actually did play pretty well. Better than I expected, but we still have a lot to learn.”
