By Nicholas Huenefeld

Special to the Sentinel-Tribune

MILLBURY — Lake’s dangerous duo of Savannah Little and Brooke Wiley delivered a 1-2 punch to Woodmore in the second half of a 2-0 girls soccer win on Saturday at the Lake Soccer Complex.

“She’s my best friend on and off the field,” Wiley said. “I think we work really well together because we have that bond. She’s my best friend on and off the field. I think if she’s off the field, I’m not the same player. She’s just awesome. I love her.”

As the game’s 52nd minute got underway, Little grabbed possession near midfield and pushed the ball up to the edge of the box, where she sailed a shot over the keeper and into the upper left for the game’s first goal.

Wiley then juked her way past several defenders and sent a shot about 25 yards into the net with 3:09 remaining, which helped seal the game and improve the Flyers to 6-0-3 overall.

“I think we worked so hard today,” Wiley said. “We were very smart in how we played, and I’m very proud of all of us.”

In the team’s nine games, Little has 15 goals and three assists, while Wiley has nine goals and five assists. Between the two of them, the sophomore duo has seven multi-goal performances while accounting for 63.2 percent of the team’s offense.

Woodmore had plenty of offensive opportunities with 17 shots on the day, including eight of the game’s 12 first-half shot attempts.

Lake’s goalkeeper, Lauren Tobias, however, made 12 saves and prevented several other non-shot opportunities that could have eventually found the net.

After the teams split the first four shot attempts, Woodmore had three consecutive opportunities, including a shot from Izzy Helmke with 16:07 left that was saved by Tobias.

Wiley got a shot off on frame with 7:30 left, and Allie Byington’s attempt with 3:50 on the clock was saved.

After a pair of corner kick opportunities for Woodmore were snuffed out in the 38th minute, the game went to the half scoreless.

“I think it was a little shaky at times but at the end of the day they played strong,” Lake head coach Lauren Colangelo said of her team’s defensive performance. “They played hard, and they did what they needed to do.”

Despite being out-shot 9-8 in the second half, Lake found a way to pull out the win as Tobias made several big plays.

In the 48th minute, Tobias corralled a great cross, and then stopped a similar play in the 51st minute. With 25:49 remaining, she erased yet another dangerous cross from Valerie Kerecz a split-second before a potential would-be goal attempt.

Tobias helped Lake snuff out multiple corner kick opportunities in the 67th minute before securing a dangerous free kick into the box as the clock approached 20 minutes.

Little and Wiley weren’t able to put them into the back of the net, but the duo had back-to-back shot attempts in the second and fourth minutes of the second half to help spark Lake’s offense with Little’s goal coming just eight minutes later.

“Savannah has a really good mindset,” Colangelo said. “She stays very composed and positive, and she knows she has to keep fighting.”

Wiley nearly made it a two-goal lead twice before she actually did. Her shot in the 59th minute hit the upper right portion of the cross bar, and her header with 5:27 remaining went just wide.

Tobias grabbed her 12th save with 1:40 on the clock, and a shot from Woodmore went wide of the frame as the clock expired.

Woodmore, which defeated Eastwood 2-0 last Saturday, fell to 3-3-1 on the season.

Lake, led by its sophomore duo of Little and Wiley, resumes play Monday against Springfield.

“Offensively, we have to keep working,” Colangelo said. “(Little and Wiley) haven’t played that position before, but I think they’re starting to build their confidence. I think they know that they can do it, and that’s what they’re going to keep doing.”