Girls Soccer: Dover closes out first half strong, beats Tri-Valley 3-1
The Dover girls soccer team improved to 7-3-2 with a 3-1 win over Tri-Valley Saturday. The Scotties fall to 6-6.
The 6-3-2 Dover Tornadoes hosted a tough 6-5 Tri-Valley Scotties on Saturday morning.
Dover Coach James Kline:
Wow! If you attended this game and were a Tornadoes fan you were in for a treat. After a couple of tough losses, we knew we needed a win and the best way to do that was to clear our minds and band together as a team. Wednesday we took the day off and attended the Walsh vs. Malone game and then on Friday we had a team dinner which I think both did numbers for us mentally and physically. It showed too because our girls came out with a fire on Saturday. From the kickoff to the end of the first half the entire team had a relentless effort that really gave the Scotties trouble. We were able to create a lot of chances in the half, but couldn’t find the back of the net until Abby Jones played a dangerous ball in the box that was softly cleared right to Bridget McCrate (pictured, # 7. Photo Memories by Lois) who was making a hard run into the box and hit a rocket past the Scotties keeper for our first goal. It’s tough to find goals in soccer and to find one with less than two minutes left in the half showed our girls’ focus and determination. Most teams would have been happy with the goal and just played out the half, but our girls didn’t and were able to earn a penalty kick after Carley Noretto earned a free kick just outside the box with fifteen seconds left in the half. Bridget McCrate rushed to the ball and played a dangerous ball across the box that a Scotties defender deflected with her hand. Bridget stepped up and converted the PK to put us up 2-0 with three seconds to go in the half.
This might have been one of the easiest and hardest half-time talks because we were playing so well that all I needed to say was go play like you did during the first half. The hard part was making that speech last ten minutes.
The girls were laser-focused and did everything we needed them to do in the second half. We did give up an unlucky goal thirteen minutes into the half when a ball was deflected off a defender and back to a Scottie’s player who hit a shot past our goalkeeper. However, our girls rebounded and found another goal three minutes later when Abby Jones took a corner that Belen Bravo-Angel redirected with her knee for our third goal of the game. You could see that this goal took the wind out of the sails of the Scotties and we controlled a majority of the last twenty minutes of the game. Tri-Valley was a tough team and by no means was this an easy win which makes the win feel even better. The win brings our record to 7-3-2 with five tough games left before the playoffs.
Now, we travel to Canton Central Catholic on Thursday where our JV team will take on St. Vincent St. Mary at 5:00 PM and varsity will play CCC with a 7:00 PM kickoff.