Trojans and Phantoms play to tie

By Murray Gleffe

Correspondent

GREEN BAY – A tie is always better than a loss.

That was the case for the Green Bay Southwest girls’ soccer team in its non-conference game with West De Pere April 23.

Trailing 1-0 in the 89th minute, Southwest got a Taylor Johnson goal to force the tie at Dahlin Family Stadium.

“The combination of passing was really impressive in that final minute,” said Southwest head coach Tyler Thomas. “It was super important that we remained patient and not rush our attack. We got a pretty substantial gap there and Taylor did the rest to get the equalizing goal.”

Zoe Cambray made 6 saves in net for West De Pere, while Tori Ellis corralled 13 for Southwest.

With both teams falling back on defense, it took almost 11 minutes before the first shot was taken by the Phantoms Becca Day.

Midway through the first half, Southwest (5-1-2 overall) forward Lexi Siegle got behind the Phantoms’ defense but steered a shot wide to keep the game scoreless.

It remained that way until halftime.

“I thought our defense played great in the first half to keep them out of the nets,” added Thomas. “We sank when we needed and didn’t give them too many clean looks.”

Six minutes into half number two, the Phantoms (4-2-1 overall) punched a goal in.

Karson Corcoran fed a ball to Ella Boudry in the middle of the field, who then turned and fired a 30-yard shot that found the back of the Trojans’ net.

West De Pere's No. 8 Ella Boudry (scored game's first goal) and Southwest's No. 13 Makayla Brown meet to gain offensive possession

“It’s not a fluke that we’ve been scoring on set pieces,” said West De Pere head coach Matt Ganzen. “It was a great pass and Ella just struck it perfectly. We had been getting great looks up to that point, so to see one go in was nice.”

In the 63rd and 68th minutes, West De Pere senior midfielder Shannon Walsh got two great looks from the right sideline 20 yards out, but each time was turned away by Ellis.

“I really think we controlled much of the second half,” Ganzen added. “Emily, Shannon and Adriana made some great pushes toward their net, but their keeper made great saves.”

The one-goal cushion for the Phantoms held up until the final minute of the game.

After a goal kick was awarded to the Trojans, Siegle, Emma Pierce and Kiara Thomas pushed the ball up beyond midfield.

Johnson then broke free of two defenders and popped in the game-tying goal.

“One of our mottos is you have to play 90 minutes,” said Ganzen about the tie. “Two years ago, Southwest beat us in the final 10 seconds, and this year they scored in the final minute. We will continue to learn and get stronger closing out games.”

Box score

West De Pere: 0, 1—1

Southwest: 0, 1—1