GIRLS SOCCER: Dover tops Mansfield Senior 4-1
DOVER – The Crimson Tornadoes girls soccer team defeated Mansfield Senior 4-1 at Crater Stadium Thursday. Dover Coach James Kline provided this wrap-up:
Last night, the Tornadoes hosted Mansfield Senior at Crater Stadium. We’ve had the hardest part of our schedule recently and it didn’t stop last night. Mansfield Senior is in the OCC, plays a tough schedule like us and has some dangerous speed up top. There was a different type of energy from the girls at the beginning of the game which felt good because we have struggled with the first and last five minutes of each half in our previous games. Quickly, you could tell we weren’t flat and started putting the pressure on Mansfield Senior, early and often. It took a little bit for them to break, but we found our first goal of the night when Miley Patton beat a defender and took a shot that beat the keeper to her front post. Again, we continued the pressure, but their defense held strong until Bridget McCrate hit a bomb from about thirty yards out that beat the keeper, top netting.
We knew we needed to just clean up a few minor things to really put the pressure on them to put the game out of reach in the second half and that’s exactly what we did. Five minutes into the second half, Abigail Lane hit a nice cross that Ava Zobel headed perfectly to the backside netting for our third goal of the game. A third goal is always critical, two goal leads are tough leads in soccer because one goal puts the other team right back into the game. Then, three minutes later after constant pressure we earned a PK for a handball in the box. Bridget McCrate stepped up and converted the PK to put us up 4-0. After the fourth goal, the game got chippy and both teams battled for the next thirty minutes. Senior was able to find a goal with nine minutes remaining. That goal ended the scoring and the game ended 4-1.
The win brings our overall record to 6-6-1 with our next game being on Saturday against our crosstown rivals in the Kick for a Cure game at 7:00 PM at Crater Stadium.