Lady Raiders lose to Northlake Christian
Published 9:50 am Monday, February 2, 2015
Pine’s Lady Raiders suffered a 6-0 loss to Northlake Christian School to close out the regular season at home Thursday in District 8-III competition.
The Lady Raiders hung tough early on against Northlake Christian, which was the top-ranked team in Division III in the unofficial power rankings on LHSAA’s web site.
Pine, which is in its third year of soccer and first season of playing at the varsity level, trailed just 2-0 over the match’s first 25 minutes.
The Lady Wolverines possessed the ball on their offensive side of the field more than Pine. The Lady Raiders’ defense did a nice job of forcing shots to go wide and keeper Kirsten Barber made some good saves.
“The girls did well,” Pine coach Dale Stogner said. “They have come a long way. I think one of the main problems, when they start scoring is that we don’t have a lot girls to sub in. Our girls get tired. They come back in at the half fresh. They work hard, they try hard and they just get tired towards the end.”
Stogner said the Lady Raiders made improvements this season.
“Coming in at game one, we were very rusty. Through every week, game-after-game, we tried to make improvements. We tried to improve on the game before and pinpoint our mistakes and work on those different things, those specific skills. You can’t do it all in one season. It’s got to start year-after-year, just continuing to improve. I think our girls have done well as far as the season goes,” Stogner said.
The first two goals for Northlake Christian came during the game’s first eight minutes.
Kate White tallied in the third when she got in close and found the back of the net to make it a 1-0 contest.
Five minutes later, Faith Saucier sent a long high-arcing shot that went just over Barber’s head for the 2-0 lead.
Pine had a chance to tally in the 14th. Abby Thomas got to a loose ball, got close but her shot was saved, keeping it 2-0.
The defenses continued to keep things at bay but NCS took a three-goal lead in the 25th.
Gab Soong got close to the goal and found the back of the net to make it 3-0.
The next tally came during the 30th.
Malia Cazalot accepted a centering pass and she scored the match’s fourth goal. The Lady Wolverines led, 4-0, at the break.
Northlake Christian had three good scoring opportunities to open the second half. NCS had a free kick that was cleared by Pine’s defense, a corner kick that was wide and another corner kick but couldn’t capitalize on any of those over the first seven minutes.
In the seventh minute of the second half, the Lady Wolverines extended the lead to 5-0 when Gabbie LaFontaine took a pass from Cazalot. LaFontaine nailed a shot that was good.
Pine had a pair of free kicks in the 12th minute but was unable to get on the board.
Northlake’s final goal was in the 68th minute when Abby Margavio capped off the scoring with tally.
The win put NCS at 15-2-5 overall and capped off a 7-0-1 in district record.