Conference leading Lions, Cardinals battle to a tie The Newaygo Lions and Big Rapids Cardinals women’s soccer teams were each undefeated in CSAA conference play when they took the field tonight on the Lions home turf. After an epic battle, both left the field the same way, ending in a 1-1 tie. The underdog Lions gave up an early goal to the Cardinals. The Lions persevered, and as the first half was winding down, Jaxi Long took a pass from Grace Painter via Connelly Hefferan Nordlund and fired a long distance shot over the Cardinal keeper to tie the game. That would be the last goal of the match. The second half saw the Lions assume a more defensive posture, with the backline of Sofia Briggs, Lynnea Briones, and Bella Welch put to work against a relentless Cardinal attack. Keeper Barbara Toth was especially strong, stopping shot after shot. Coach Painter: “Coming into the game I knew we were going to be in for an uphill battle. We had one starter at home sick and our leading scorer on the year was still significantly under the weather. But our ladies never give up and were ready to put it all out there on the field. It was a pretty physical game from start to finish, which made for an exciting match. Possession was shared fairly evenly in the first half with both Big Rapids and us stringing together several passes before getting shots on goal. Although Big Rapids controlled much of the possession in the second half, our team defense stayed strong, including several great saves by Barbara Toth. While we certainly would have preferred a win, we will take a tie to maintain a piece of the conference lead! We are hoping to be healthy for our three conference games next week!"
The Lions (4-0-1, 8-1-1) travel to Montague on Friday for a 4:30 match against the Wildcats.
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