By By STEVE MORRISON / Niles Daily Star
NILES – In a downpour that lasted for the entire match, the Mattawan Wildcats women's soccer team managed to hold off Niles' lady Vikings squad 3-0 on Monday evening at Niles High School.
The game was closer than the final score might indicate
It was a defensive standoff for the first half. Both Niles keeper Autumn Lucero and her counterpart, Amanda Klage of Mattawan, rejected everything that came their way. Lucero had nine saves in the first 40 minutes and Klage recorded 5.
Mattawan's offense put on the pressure from the very beginning. Sophomore midfielder Taylor Callen was a constant threat with her leg firing six shots on goal, but Lucero was up to the task. Abigail Krygier fired a corner kick for the Wildcats, but Lucero made a big save in the middle of scrambled traffic in front of the net.
Sarah Tyler, Alexis McIntee, Bryanna Cramer, Ashley Allison, Brittany Molnar, and particularly Kaitlyn Touhey were all staunch in their defensive support of Lucero, in the half.
Megan Horn had Niles' first shot on goal and some offensive thrusts led by Dakota Price and Allison Ott kept Niles punching the ball downfield.
Ashley Allison almost slipped one past Klage at the 36 minute mark, but was stymied. Seconds later, Lucero returned the favor, deflecting a solid shot from the Wildcats' Lisa Patrick.
So it went, scoreless for the first forty minutes, as the rain tormented the combatants like it was a slippery third team, confounding the offenses of both Niles and Mattawan.
By midway through the second period, with the temperatures dropping into the thirties, it looked like the match might turn into a scoreless duel.
Mattawan kept working their right side of field, bringing the ball down the sideline and trying to center it to Callen. She finally connected, at 60:12, with the one kind of shot that Lucero just couldn't quite handle.
From 30 feet out Callen lifted a left-footed boot that kept rising and rising, just settling into the net behind a leaping Lucero.
Molnar had a close shot on goal at the 65 minute mark. Perhaps Niles' best scoring opportunity came at 69:20 when a floating shot by Allison came to Rachel Smith, in front of the net. Smith hammered a header that barely sailed above the goal.
By fractions of inches and seconds, it just wasn't Niles luck to be in the right place at the right time.
At 72:25, Wildcat Brittney McKague knocked in a short shot off of a deflection. Callen scored again, from short range, on an assist from Krygier, to put the 'Cats in the driver's seat 3-0 and less than two minutes remaining in the ordeal.
Lucero looked great in the crease, with 17 saves for the game. Niles is now 3-5-1 on the year, and Mattawan climbs to 4-4.
Mattawan…3
Niles…0
Halftime Score
Mattawan 0, Niles 0
Second Half
M – Taylor Callen 60:12;
M – Brittney McKague 72:25
M – Callen (M) 78:11 (Abigail Krygier assist)
Shots on Goal
Niles 7, Mattawan 20
Saves
Lucero (N) 8, Klage (M) 2