Lady Bulldogs maul two Panther squads
The Highland girls soccer team realized its first winning streak of the season. The Lady Bulldogs followed up a 6-2 victory over the visiting Litchfield Purple Panthers on Tuesday of last week at Glik Park with a 2-0 blanking of host Jerseyville on Thursday to notch their first conference win of the season.
“We have a young team that is starting to gel and develop some camaraderie together and are really coming along,” said Highland fourth-year coach Josh Oswald, whose team improved to 3-4-1 overall and 1-2-1 in the Mississippi Valley Conference.
Highland will host MVC foe Waterloo next today before competing in next weekend’s Mater Dei Tournament, where HHS will face host Mater Dei at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Breese Central at 9 a.m. on Saturday, and Springfield Southeast at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
HHS 6, Litchfield 2
The Bulldogs pumped in four goals in the first half to double up Litchfield by halftime. Highland came back out and tacked on two more tallies after the break while shutting out the Purple Panthers over the final 40 minutes of play.
Junior Abby Stulir paced the Bulldogs with a pair of goals and one assist.
Also contributing multiple points were freshman Katelyn Marti with one goal and one assist and sophomore Katelyn Wills with three assists.
In addition, junior Alisse Koishor, sophomore Kallie Painter and freshman Audrey Wilke each netted one goal apiece, while sophomore goalkeeper Morgan Zobrist stopped eight shots on goal to earn the win between the pipes. Koishor was credited with the game-winning third goal.
“Overall, we played pretty well,” Oswald said. “We need to tighten up some stuff in the back end, because our spacing was a little off at times. But I thought we moved the ball pretty well, and I heard them talking out there. They are starting to communicate better with one another and connect passes and play better together.”
HHS 2, Jerseyville 0
Marti notched the game-winning first goal before halftime, and freshman classmate Jaqlyn Ferguson scored the first varsity goal of her career when she added an insurance marker after the break on a penalty kick because of a handball call on Jerseyville.
Just as key in the big win was that Zobrist turned away all six shots the Panthers put on goal to pick up her second shutout. Highland out shot Jerseyville 19-6 for the match.
Zobrist made a quick, key reaction save in the first half to keep the Panthers from scoring first when she backpedaled and used her hand to deflect a crisp shot out of harm’s way, kind of similar to a volleyball setter setting the ball.
“We talked about before the game that we needed to start off games a little bit better and we need to finish halves better, and the girls did that in this game,” Oswald said. “Jerseyville had a couple of good scoring chances, but Morgan Zobrist made a couple of good saves. Overall, I thought we possessed the ball and had some creative ideas, and the girls are starting to get as a team.”
This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 8:45 AM with the headline "Lady Bulldogs maul two Panther squads."