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Girls Soccer: Fergus Falls 4, Hillcrest 1
Published 12:00am Wednesday, October 14, 2009The seventh-seeded Hillcrest girls soccer team gave second-seeded Fergus Falls all that it could handle, but allowed the Otters to capitalize late and win the opening round of the Section 8A playoffs 4-1 Tuesday afternoon at Stadium Field.
After the first half ended in a 0-0 tie, Fergus’ senior captain Liz Underwood’s goal five minutes into the second half broke the deadlock.
Hillcrest would respond 10 minutes later when Comets’ leading scorer Marissa Monacelli out muscled Fergus goalie Kalea Hatlewick, tapping the ball into the goal to knot the game up at one, much to the Otter faithful’s dismay, who were certain Monacelli was offside on the play.
Taylor McCluflin’s goal with 17 minutes remaining put the Otters up for good and into cruise control.
“We lost our composure in the second half, and with that our confidence,” Comets’ coach Amanda Deyounge said. “We panicked and fell apart.”
Liz Underwood’s second goal of the day, as well as Shannon Anderson’s first provided the two insurance goals for the Otters.
“We told the girls to relax and just play some Otter soccer after the slow start,” Otters’ coach Karoline Brause said. “They found their grove in the end.”
Fergus will play the winner of (6)Crookston at (3)Alexandria in the next round of the playoffs.
The Otters defeated Alexandria 3-2 back on September 22.
Brause believes that her squad has plenty of room for improvement before their next game.
“Our communication in the back line is not has good as it used to be, their giving up way too many goals,” Brause said. “Were going to have to play some hard nose defense coming up here.”
The loss signals the end of a long season for the Comets and coach Amanda Deyounge.
Hillcrest will look to build on a solid foundation of returning players next season, headed by Monacelli and Julia Miller, to help improve upon the Comets’ three win season of 2009.
Miller looks to be the early favorite in goal next season for the Comets after holding a potent Fergus offense in check with several saves in just her second career start in goal.
Miller’s first start between the pipes came Monday in a 1-0 shutout of Walker-Hackensack-Akeley.
