Highland battles, but falls to Collinsville 2-0 in girls soccer action
On Monday, the Collinsville girls soccer team employed balance on offense and a tight, relentless defensive effort to defeat host Highland 2-0.
It was another close, tough loss for Highland, but Lady Bulldogs coach Josh Oswald was pleased with his team’s effort.
“It was a competitive game and I thought it was back and forth, and I was happy with our performance,” Oswald said. “I told the girls, we’ve had some good outcomes where we’re in a 50/50 game with Waterloo at half or lose to Collinsville 2-0 after being down one goal at the half, so we know we can play with the best (teams) defensively. We know it, and we’ve got to be better on the offensive end.”
In a first half that featured close marking and limited scoring chances, Collinsville (8-8-1) surged ahead on Sarah Henze’s goal 20 minutes in off of a penalty kick that slipped past Highland goalkeeper Bella LaPorta.
“Their girls hit a very nice penalty kick, she struck it well and powered it through with accuracy and Bella really had no chance on it, and they had one goal at half,” Oswald said.
Highland was not without decent scoring chances in the game. Jaqlyn Ferguson and Madlyn McCall combined on a quality chance that just missed the back of the net at the 22-minute mark of the first half.
“I thought Jaqlyn and Madeline connected really well one time and Madalyn got a left-footed shot at the top of the 18 that narrowly went wide (of the goal), and I thought Sam Hengehold had a really strong game and brought a lot of timely runs,” Oswald said. “We created a good amount of chances in the first half and a few in the second half.”
Fifteen minutes into the second stanza, Collinsville’s Mariah Siverly notched an insurance goal to make it 2-0.
Overall, Oswald believes the team is close to making a run as the season winds down.
Ferguson leads the club offensively with nine goals and 21 points, but Oswald said he feels several other players are ready to break out, such as Katie Augustin, Hengehold, and McCall.
“We’ve just got to get more connection together and our offense hasn’t found it yet, but we think we’ve got some other girls other than Jaqlyn that can score, and hopefully they can start doing that for us,” Oswald said.
Highland enters the final two weeks of the regular season sitting at 5-11-1 overall (3-3 in the Mississippi Valley Conference). Oswald is not a big believer in regular season success. Instead, he believes in getting the team ready for the postseason by playing a demanding schedule against elite IHSA Class 2A and 3A schools.
“My job, I believe, is to prepare us to become the best we can in the postseason and make a deep run and, in order to do that, you’re going to run into good teams,” Oswald said. “That’s why we have Alton and Granite City, and Collinsville because we want to play 3A schools and the elite 2A schools, so sometimes the record can be deceiving.
“But we believe in the girls we’ve got and I believe if we can get hot, we can play with anybody.
This story was originally published May 1, 2019 at 12:18 AM.