News
JV Gold Splits Matches with Loveland and McNick
Posted on: October 3, 2022
The JV Gold Spartans split a pair of games last week, falling 1-0 at Loveland in a hard-fought match before bouncing back to shut out McNick 3-0 on Saturday. Their record now stands at 6-4-1 (2-3-0 ECC) heading into the season's final weeks.
While the Spartans didn't score in the first half of the Loveland match, it wasn't for a lack of opportunities. Addie Buckley had a shot less than two minutes into the game, and the Spartans had chances on a pair of first half corner kicks off the foot of Addi Braun. The first resulted in an attempted header by Lilly Peveler, and the second led to a shot from Kaitlyn Wilver, which was blocked and eventually found its way to Sydney McMillin, who missed just wide. Camryn Lyons had a few chances late in the half as well, while keeper Marley Ball tallied five saves to keep the Tigers off the board.
JV Gold had a couple opportunities early in the second half as well, the first coming after some great hustle from Wilver led to a Lyons shot that went wide. Those two connected again shortly thereafter, leading to a Wilver cross that the Spartans were unable to get a foot on. Turpin was called for a foul around midfield about 12 minutes into the half. Loveland played the free kick toward the box, and it glanced off the head of a Spartan defender, which the Tigers ran onto and fired into the back of the net with 23:37 to play. The Spartans kept fighting to the very end though. First a shot from Peveler missed wide with less than four minutes remaining, and then a beautiful free kick from Braun hit the crossbar with 2:30 left. The final chance came on a corner with 30 seconds to play, which Addie Deems got a foot on but went just wide. The loss was JV Gold's third in ECC play, with each one coming by a single goal.
The Spartans were back in action on Saturday against McNick, where they got off to a bit of a slow start. Outside of an early shot from Peveler and a couple chances from Ana Potrafke, the Rockets had most of the scoring chances through the early part of the game. Ball rose to the occasion when called upon though and finished with six saves in the half. The Spartans started to get more chances of their own late in the half, first on a shot from Deems with around four minutes to play. Just 40 seconds later, JV Gold broke through as Lyons found Potrafke to the left of the goal, where she rifled a shot past the McNick keeper to give Turpin a 1-0 lead, which they would carry into halftime.
Turpin kept the momentum into the beginning of the second half, as they tried to tack on a second goal. Lyons had a chance with around 16:40 to play, as she was nearly able to flick the ball over the McNick keeper. She would make good on her next opportunity though, as a pass from Eva Theetge found Lyons, who would maneuver through multiple defenders in the box and eventually tucked the ball into the side of the net to give Turpin a 2-0 lead with 16:05 left. Just four minutes later, Anna Barton had a great shot clang off the post, but much like Lyons, she would make good on her next chance. The Spartans earned a corner kick, which Wilver served into the box and a waiting Barton knocked into the goal with just under 10 minutes remaining in the match.
The Spartan defense would close things out from there, with keeper Liz Wullenweber tallying four saves and combining with Ball for the clean sheet. This marks the fifth shutout for JV Gold this season and their third in the last four games. The trio of Emily Reckers, Hannah Bottoms, and Braun have been working well together along the back line, with Rylie Gast also making strong contributions defensively in the midfield.
