Highland Lady Bulldogs kickers get first win of season with shutout of Litchfield

The early portion of the 2022 season has been challenging and frustrating for the Highland Lady Bulldogs soccer team.

On Monday, April 4, Highland ended those frustrations thanks to a strong wire-to-wire effort that snapped a seven-game losing streak.

Senior defender Britin Machuca scored a first-half goal, senior midfielder Katie Augustin added a second-half goal and the HHS defense made it stand up as Highland blanked Litchfield 2-0 in a non-conference game at Highland Middle School.

It was a relief and confidence booster for a Highland club that had struggled to have early-season success.

“I’m just thrilled (for the girls) and it’s definitely a confidence boost for the girls,” first-year Highland coach Daniel Podwojski said. “They needed that.”

Highland — which notched its first win this spring — played aggressively in the midfield areas and that pressure helped get it ahead in the first half against Litchfield.

Machuca put HHS on the board with an unassisted goal late in the first half for a 1-0 lead.

Roughly 10 minutes into the second half, Augustin got loose and scored another unassisted goal, giving the Lady Bulldogs a 2-0 cushion.

That was all senior goalie Lexa Gelly needed, as she kept the Highland goal box clear and picked up her first shutout of the season.

Podwojski said one of the biggest challenges the team faced the first six games was the midfield not clicking properly and pushing the ball forward to an offensive position.

“We kind of had some confusion (there), so we took what we needed to work on and really applied it in practice. We developed some drills and strategies and scrimmage type things in practice that we could carry on into the games working on pushing the ball forward from defense to midfield to offense.,” Podwojski said.

All in all, defeating Litchfield was a huge lift for the Lady Bulldogs and Podwojski said he believes the team is starting to trend in the right direction.

“I think that this game here was a big moment for them,” Podwojski said. “I think it is truly starting to turn around because we are coming off the field in a positive mindset regardless of where we are at during the game. They’re talking about ‘let’s keep our heads high no matter what and continue on doing what we can do.’ It’s definitely going in the right direction now.”

Highland now hopes to build on the Litchfield victory.

“Hopefully, we’re going to take this momentum and positive mindset after this game and just continue rolling forward with it ... and hopefully we can get some positive outcomes,” Podwojski said.

This story was originally published April 4, 2022 at 11:26 PM.