Greenon High School girls soccer coach Ray Raines is hoping his squad can break out of its early season rut sooner rather than later.
The Knights didn’t play their best soccer Wednesday, Sept. 2,, but were able to grind out a 3-1 Central Buckeye Conference crossover division victory against Shawnee.
Katie Collins had two goals, and Katie Nickels added the other goal for the Knights (2-0).
“We were down,” Raines said. “We were way off tonight. We need to win the midfield. That’s a big key. I give credit to Shawnee because they did win the midfield. We just had a difficult time adjusting to a lot of different things on the field.”
Greenon got on the board first with 27 minutes remaining in the first half when Brittany Ennemoser played a through ball to Collins, who floated past the incoming Shawnee goalkeeper Allison Hatcher to make it 1-0.
Four minutes later, Shawnee (3-1) nearly tied the score on a counterattack when Briana Baise’s shot from the 18-yard box missed the left far post by a few inches.
The Knights made it 2-0 right before halftime when Nickels tracked down a loose ball inside Shawnee’s defense and smashed it into the net.
The Braves made a match of it with 15 minutes remaining in the second half when Baise’s cross deflected off a Greenon defender and into the net to pull Shawnee within one.
After a few more chances by Shawnee, Collins scored her second goal to seal the win for Greenon.
Shawnee coach Kristi Hirtzinger was proud of her team’s effort against a Greenon squad that beat them 9-0 last fall.
“We’ve definitely improved from last year,” Hirtzinger said. “For our girls, that was a victory. We’ve worked hard. There were a couple things we missed in the beginning of the game, a couple opportunities that I think should things have been different, that might’ve been a tie game.”
Rachel Christopher had 10 saves in goal for the Knights, while Hatcher had nine for Shawnee.
Raines praised Shawnee’s effort and said his team needs to get back to work for a big match against Carroll on Saturday.
“Our whole team was off, but I give no excuses,” Raines said. “Shawnee came out to play. We didn’t come out to play tonight.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0365 or mcooper@coxohio.com.
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