Girls Soccer: Dover falls to Weir
DOVER – The Weir girls soccer team defeated Dover Saturday 3-1. The Red Riders are 7-2-1. Dover’s record is 6-2-2.
Dover Coach James Kline:
This might have been one of the strangest games I have ever coached. During the first six minutes of the game, we looked good and looked to be on the verge of breaking through for a goal. Then, the beautiful game of soccer showed us how quickly things can change in a second when one of the Red Riders’ outside mids played a through ball that we were unable to defend. Their forward ran through, pushed the ball past our keeper, and found the back of the net to give them a 1-0 lead six minutes into the game. The strangeness continued when we went back to playing well, but we just kept struggling to connect when we reached their third of the field. Then, with eight and half minutes left in the first half, the Red Riders earned a questionable free kick right outside the eighteen. Anytime you have to defend a free kick from just outside of your eighteen it’s never good. There are so many options there to defend, little space to adjust, and the idea that they could just rip a shot from that close is also in the back of your head. The Red Riders ran two girls off the ball as a distraction and it worked when they finally ripped a shot past our goalkeeper for their second goal on their second shot of the game. Thankfully, our girls didn’t run from the fight and Abby Jones was able to find a goal with just twenty-seven seconds left in the first half.
Going into the halftime talk, I thought we looked flat during the first half, but we were playing well. In the last five to six minutes of the half we had a couple plays that seemed to spark some energy into us. Then, Abby getting that goal right before half I thought we were going to come out firing on all cylinders. Well, we came out and really didn’t look much different from the first half. We possessed and moved the ball well, but just didn’t look like we had any energy. Then, nine minutes into the second half the Red Riders put in their third and final goal of the game. Even after that goal, it didn’t seem like we were out of the game. We had thirty minutes left and knew if we could find a second goal a third wouldn’t be impossible if we just found some energy. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find that second goal or a boost of energy and took our second loss of the season. The Weir Red Riders were a quality team and we learned that we cannot make mistakes against good teams. The loss brings our record to 6-2-2.
We have two big games this week that could really change the trajectory of our season. We need to come ready to play on Tuesday when we take on East District opponent West Holmes at 7:00 PM and Tri-Valley on Saturday at 12:00 PM, both at home.