By Rob Potter
ROSCOE — September 21, 2001 – The Roscoe girls’ soccer team picked up its second victory on the young season Wednesday afternoon.
A goal by Staci Fersch with 17:04 left in the game gave Roscoe (2-3-1) a 3-2 non-league win over visiting Downsville.
Although the Downsville forwards pressured the Roscoe defense in the final minutes of the game, they could not score the tying goal. Downsville’s best chance to knot the score came with 3:45 remaining. The ball was loose near the top of the goal box as Roscoe goalie Christine Rosencranse and Downsville forward Katie Mattson raced towards it.
Mattson won the race and kicked the ball at the open goal cage, but the ball hit the right post and bounced away. Rosencranse then quickly grabbed the ball before Mattson or any of her teammates could slam home the rebound.
Despite outshooting Downsville by a 27-15 margin, the Lady Blue Devils had to hang on for the one-goal victory.
“We had a lot of shots in the first half,” Roscoe Coach Mary Austin said. “But we didn’t seem to get good footing on the ball. We need to work on that and get a better foot on the ball to put more speed on the shot.”
Despite the Roscoe shot advantage, and a 4-0 advantage in corner kicks, the contest was a back-and-forth affair.
Lady Blue Devil forward Diana Failla scored the game’s first goal with 8:40 left in the first half off of a pass from Rosie Miesner.
But less than a minute later, Downsville (2-5) answered. Mallory Mattson sent a low shot past Rosencranse to knot the score at 1-1.
With 10 minutes elapsed in the second half, Amanda Huck put the Lady Blue Devils back in the lead off a corner kick. Kelly Ahart sent the ball into the goal box, which was crowded with players, and Huck jumped up and headed the ball past Downsville goalie Cherish Nocello.
Five minutes later, Downsville tied the score when Mallory Mattson scored her second goal of the contest. She sent a high, hard shot past Rosencranse.
“I just wish the girls would have hustled a little more,” Downsville Coach Gail McCaffrey said. “We should have beat them to the ball more often and maybe we could have had more goals.”
Meanwhile, Austin praised the performance of two of her senior players, Ahart and Fersch.
“In the second half, I moved Staci up the front line and I think that helped the front line (players) get to the ball,” Austin explained. “And Kelly did a nice job in the midfield. She was able to kick the ball up to the forwards.”
Rosencranse recorded 11 saves in the game, while Nocello stopped 20 Roscoe shots.