By Rob Potter
ELDRED — October 22, 2004 – The first half of Tuesday’s non-league girls’ soccer game between visiting Tri-Valley and Eldred was very even.
Each team scored a goal to knot the score at 1-1 heading into halftime. Eldred’s Jess Bisland scored at 15:54 and T-V’s Maria Jeltsch answered with a goal at 13:32. T-V’s Julie Shovlin and Eldred’s Kim French assisted on the goals.
But in the second half, T-V (8-6) took a two-goal lead and then held off a determined Eldred squad to earn a 3-2 victory as a cool, steady mist fell from the gray clouds overhead.
The Lady Bears took a 2-1 lead midway through the second half. With 23:05 remaining in the match, Shovlin scored off an assist by Pompeii. Shovlin took the pass from Pompeii and sent a low shot into the near corner of the Eldred goal cage.
Less than three minutes later, at the 20:18 mark, T-V took a two-goal advantage. Kayla Scannell sent a high shot into the back of the net to make it a 3-1 game. Junior midfielder Danielle Musa assisted on the goal.
But that two-goal cushion lasted only 20 seconds.
Eldred’s French answered Scannell’s goal at the 19:58 mark. From about 15 yards away, French sent a low, hard shot past T-V goalie Kaylie Ackerley and into the far corner of the goal cage.
Down 3-2, Eldred (7-7-1) tried to tie the score in the remaining minutes. But Ackerley, who registered seven saves in the game, stopped those shots to preserve the Lady Bears’ win.
Eldred goalie Angel Garofalo had nine saves in the match.
Perhaps the Lady Yellowjackets’ best opportunity to tie the game at 3-3 came with 3:05 left. Bisland kicked the ball at the T-V goal from only about 10 yards away. But Ackerley calmly made the save.
“Kaylie really came up big today,” T-V Coach Mary Feusner said.
Feusner added she was “very happy” about the way her squad played in the second half.
The absence of senior midfielder Alice Cook forced Feusner to adjust the Lady Bears’ lineup throughout the game.
“We had to make some changes in the midfield and move some people to different positions,” she said. “But when they [Eldred] began getting shots from the midfield, we had to go back to the original setup we had at the beginning of the game.”
With just a few matches left in the regular season, the Lady Bears are looking for two more wins to qualify for sectional play.
“Today’s outcome certainly didn’t hurt us,” Feusner said.
Eldred is also trying to make sectionals. Coach Jolene Porter said that her team needed to win two more games to earn a spot in postseason play. The Lady Yellowjackets defeated The Family School on Wednesday to move closer to their goal.
“We’re still OK,” Porter said after Tuesday’s defeat. “These girls went out and played as hard as they could, so I have no complaints. We did all we could today, it just wasn’t enough.”