Story and photos by Tara Hefferan In soccer, a “derby” is a match played between locally rival teams. Monday night was the Newaygo County derby, as neighbors Newaygo Lions and Grant Tigers went toe-to-toe in the first round of the CSAA Conference Tournament. The Lions emerged victorious, in a 2-1 win over the Tigers. The first half of the match was largely back-and-forth, with the Lions and Tigers each taking turns in possession. With more shot attempts, Grant broke through first when Tiger Danica Baker slotted the ball to the left of Lion Keeper Ella Soules. The match stood with the Tigers in a 1-0 lead at halftime. The Lions entered the second half with intensity and offensive pressure. Less than five minutes in, the Lions got on the board after Grant fumbled an attempt to clear the ball away from goal. As the ball deflected around the box, Landry Hefferan Nordlund pounced at the penalty spot, sending a banger into the middle upper section of the net. The game stood at 1-1 with 35 minutes left to play. As the minutes ticked by and the end of the game was imminent, the crowd began murmuring about an overtime period and possible penalty shootout. CSAA Conference Tournament games cannot end in a tie. A winner must emerge. The crowd’s nervous anticipation was for naught, however. With just three minutes of time remaining, the Lions clinched the game winner. The play unfolded with Lena Wagner stealing the ball near the edge of the Tigers’ box. Dribbling past the defense and into the center, Wagner fired a shot into the upper right corner, bringing the Lions ahead 2-1. Despite a valiant effort, Grant was unable to answer with another goal of their own. Over the 80 minutes, Lion Keeper Ella Soules faced 20 shots total, with 12 on goal, stopping all but 1. The Lions put up 8 shots total, with 4 on goal. Commenting on the match, Grant Head Coach Daisy Gomez de Leon said, “Playing Newaygo is our favorite game. Once again, the Tigers outshot the Lions, and like before, we struggled to find the net. Before the 1st half ended, Danica Baker scored the single goal of the game for the Tigers. This was her first high school goal. The Lions capitalized on our back line scramble and scored their second goal and secured the win with very little time left on the clock. Can't wait for next time.” Newaygo Head Coach Matt Painter said, “After over a week of injuries and illness, we finally had our core players back together tonight. In the first half we seemed tentative and struggled to string passes together to build much of an attack. Grant played tough defense and was just quicker to the ball. In the second half, our girls started to find their offensive groove a bit more and just refused to give up. Eventually that grit paid off, and we were able to come away with the win. As we move through this conference tournament and into districts next week, we hope to continue to build on that never give up attitude!”
Newaygo will face Big Rapids next in Round 2 of the CSAA Conference Tournament. The game will be played in Big Rapids, on Wednesday, May 15 at 6:00 PM.
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