Eastwood’s Karly Wasserman, who scored her team’s lone goal in the first half, moves the ball across the field against Maumee on Wednesday. (Nicholas Huenefeld | Sentinel-Tribune)
By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
PEMBERVILLE — The Eastwood girls soccer team suffered a 2-1 loss to Maumee at home on Wednesday as the Panthers got a pair of first half goals from Evelyn Boyett before hanging on late.
The Eagles fell to 5-4-1 overall (2-1-1 NBC), while Maumee improved to 3-5-2 (2-1-1 NBC). Both teams are now tied for third place in the conference, just behind Lake and Oak Harbor, who are both 2-0-2.
“We fought until the end,” Eastwood coach Julie Cross said. “We definitely out-shot them and had lots of opportunities. We knew it was going to be a battle. Our mindset going in was that we’re playing for an NBC championship, which is a good thing.
“It’s good to have tough league competition. We like battles. I wish we could have found the net at the end. We had chances right up until the end. We didn’t give up and were fighting with 30 seconds left.”
Boyett shocked Eastwood just 34 seconds in with the game’s first goal. The Panthers hit a crossing shot, which was sent on the initial touch to Boyett, who established control with her body before turning and striking it into the goal.
“Everybody has been asking us what’s wrong because of our record, and there’s nothing wrong,” Maumee head coach Jeremiah McNutt said. “We just keep playing, and our hard schedule sets us up for these games.
“Eastwood (has won or shared the past six NBC titles), so they are a bar for us to set ourselves against. They should do very well in the tournament, but this is a huge win for us as we approach the rest of the season.”
Eastwood had nine shots in the first half, including four on goal. Kenna Nelson’s shot in the 12th minute was just high, and then Piper Sutton had a shot deflected and saved in the 17th minute.
Moments later, with 20:15 remaining, Sutton sent a through ball to Karly Wasserman. A Maumee defender, who meant to kick the ball to the keeper, wasn’t able to send it far enough.
Wasserman took advantage and put the equalizer into the net.
Each team then traded saved shots before Sutton and Lexi Hoffman posted back-to-back shots wide.
Forty seconds after Sutton’s wide shot, however, Boyett gave her team the lead with 6:21 to halftime.
Sutton nearly tied it up 42 seconds after that, but her header off a corner went high and over the net.
Eastwood tightened things up in the second half, allowing zero shots while peppering Maumee with six of their own, although only one went on frame and another hit the crossbar.
“We got better at the transition, getting back on defense when we didn’t have the ball to prevent a little bit of the gaps we were seeing in the first half,” Cross said. “So when we won it, we could transition together. Credit to them, they had a tough backline. Their goalie is really good. She played really well.”
The shot that hit the top of the crossbar came with 24:10 remaining.
Karissa Nelson had two shots go high in the 58th and 71st minutes, and the Eagles had a shot saved with 11:25 left.
In total, Eastwood had 15 shots, including five on goal compared to three and two for Maumee.
“We play more of an Italian style so we don’t have a lot of offense,” McNutt said. “We play a lot of defense. We play good team defense, and then we counter-attack. We get teams bored, so they all push up, and then we go at them. It works for us.”
Maumee’s assists came from Kendall O’Shea and Miriam Findling.
