The Patriots fell to the York Wildcats on a chilly Tuesday night 5-1. Despite what the score shows, this game was a highly contested game that could have seen either team win. Both teams battled hard from start to finish.
The first ten minutes of this game saw the Patriots with the best opportunities to score. Mady West forced several turnovers and got in behind the defense, but was unable to get that final shot or pass off before the defense recovered. As the Wildcats settled in, the play became a little more back and forth. As the first half continued the Patriots had a few fantastic efforts that were just wide of the goal, one was a curling shot by Jordan Grant that missed by inches. Ivy Abrams came up big in goal for the Patriots with a couple astounding saves that would have beat most keepers. She made two full stretch, explosive dives to parry the shots away from the goal.
As the first half was winding down and the game looked like it was going to be 0-0 going into the half, the Wildcats struck. A cross went into the box from the right side of the field, the first player to the ball faked a shot and let the ball roll by her to Eliza Linn just inside the center of the box. She took one touch and powered the shot into the upper right corner of the goal with 4:13 left in the half. The Patriots answered quickly though, scoring at the 2:27 mark. Amelia Cobb sent a hard cross from the left side of the field into the six yard box, the keeper wasn’t able to handle the cross and it bounced back for Ashleen Perkins who calmly passed the ball into the open net.
The scoring wasn’t done for the first half. The Wildcats scored on a shot that seemingly came out of nowhere with 29 seconds left. The Patriots were defending the attacking well, the ball was on the left side of the field well outside the box. Nina Howe didn’t appear to have anyone to play to, so she took a couple dribbles towards the middle of the field and sent a hard curling shot at goal. It was perfectly taken into the upper corner of the far post, giving Ivy no chance of reaching it.
The scoring continued into the beginning of the second half. Nina scored three more times for the Wildcats. The first on what appeared to be a miss-hit cross that barely went under the crossbar at 37:03. The second came on a well placed through ball by Delaney LaBonte that was able to get Nina behind the defense at 34:45. And the final goal of the game came at 27:16 when Nina got the ball in the middle of the field and took a shot similar to the end the first half from the edge of the box. Despite the score being 5-1 at this point, the Patriots didn’t give up. They kept fighting and looked threatening many times, but were unable to find that final product they were looking for.
The Patriots fall to 2-2 with the loss and the Wildcats improve to 2-1. The Patriots will look to bounce back when they host last seasons state champions, the Cape Elizabeth Capers this Saturday, September 21st for their homecoming weekend. JV will play first at 11:15am and Varsity will follow at 1:00pm.