HHWS Comes Up Short In Rivalry Rematch

Thursday night was not the night for the Highland Women’s Soccer team.  Playing an intense game under the lights against rival East, the Lady Rams faltered and fell 1-0 to their archenemies.

From the very beginning, East came out firing.  Dominating possession, it was all the Highland defense could do to prevent the Leopards from scoring.  The primary form of attack came from East’s senior forward, Jill Bennett, who used her size as well as speed to power by defenders.  However, the Lady Rams did a good job of stopping Bennett and the Leopard attack.  With 26 minutes left in the half, Highland goalkeeper Kennedy McDonald was forced to make a critical one on one save, blocking it skillfully with her outstretched hands.

“I just tried to get something in the way of the ball,” McDonald said.  “Luckily I got my hand there to deflect it wide of the goal where a defender was able to clear it out.”

Thanks to some superb defending and goalkeeping, the Lady Rams went into the halftime break all tied up at 0-0 and came back out looking to get something going offensively.  However, the East high defense continued to hold strong after the break, intercepting through ball after through ball, and preventing Highland from really being able to challenge the goalkeeper.  The breakthrough for the Leopards came with 33 minutes left in the game when sophomore Emily Jensen teed up a shot from 20+ yards out and fired it into the top right corner, past the fingers of McDonald and into the goal.  After this goal, East continued to smother the Rams on defense, crushing any attempts at counter attack.  The Rams however almost equalized with under 10 minutes to play, when a cross fell right at the feet of Emma Thorton.  However, the East goalie was able to pounce on the ball and the referee deemed that Thorton had committed a foul, ending the play.  The game ended with the Leopards on top, breaking the hearts of Rams fans and players alike. It is critical that the Lady Rams brush off this tough loss however, as they are now fighting for their lives to make it into the playoffs.

“It’s super important for us to win on Thursday,” McDonald said talking about their last regular season game.  “As long as we win on Thursday we are guaranteed to make playoffs.  We have a bye on Tuesday so we have plenty of time to rest and reset from yesterday and get ready to play our best to beat Box Elder.”

Using the Tuesday bye to their advantage will be the name of the game for the Lady Rams, who will look to make their final playoff push against Box Elder on Thursday to end off the regular season.