Still struggling: Blue Jays winless streak up to 4 games
As if soccer isn’t a tough enough game as it is, throw in some rain, sleet and gale force winds and that’s what the Jamestown girls’ soccer team had to compete in on Tuesday as hosts to St. Mary’s The sun eventually peaked through midway through the first half and as the temperatures began to heat up, so did the Saints.
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As if soccer isn’t a tough enough game as it is, throw in some rain, sleet and gale force winds and that’s what the Jamestown girls’ soccer team had to compete in on Tuesday as hosts to St. Mary’s
The sun eventually peaked through midway through the first half and as the temperatures began to heat up, so did the Saints.
St. Mary’s used two second-half goals to defeat the Blue Jays 2-0, the fourth straight game Jamestown has been held scoreless.
“The weather was definitely a factor early on,” said JHS coach Donovan Gibson. “Playing in 60-mile-an-hour winds is something I can’t really fathom.”
Both teams were scoreless in the first half but it didn’t take long in the second for the Saints to get on the board.
Just 47 seconds after the break, St. Mary’s junior Kalah Peterson found the back of the net to give the Saints their first lead of the game.
“We weren’t focused, we were a little sloppy and we let in a real soft goal,” Gibson said. “I thought we recovered from it pretty quickly by getting into the attack, but then we just had a little bit of a mental lapse after that.”
The Jays (4-2-3) had their first scoring chance of the second half when Brooke Winson had a free kick in front of the net at 25:06 but Saints’ goalkeeper Nicole Moen made a hand save to her left to keep the Jays off the board.
Winson set up another chance just over five minutes later when she lofted a pass in front of the goal for Miah Dabill but Moen got her hands on the ball before Dabill could get her head on it.
“It was a struggle for us today,” Gibson said.
The Saints added to their lead with 12:37 to go in the game when eighth-grader Lily Obrigewitch burst past the defense and fired a shot past Jamestown keeper Jade Lind in the lower right side.
Jamestown had a few chances in the closing minutes, one coming with under three minutes to play when junior Amber Hillesland, who played the middle in Jenae Dabill’s absence, maneuvered through the Saints’ defense along the left sideline and rifled a shot in on net. Moen made the save, her eighth of the game, and the Saints held on to the victory.
“Amber Hillesland played her best game of the season,” said Gibson. “She was tough in the middle and she made up for the loss of Jenae. We didn’t have Jenae tonight because she suffered a high ankle sprain so we kept her out of tonight’s game, but she (Hillesland) really made up for that lack of Jenae’s presence in the middle.”
Lind also had eight saves in the game including a tough one-handed save in the first half that she deflected over the net after it nearly dropped in behind her.
Less than 10 minutes later Saints’ senior Alyssa Kopp put a shot in on net from the right side that was turned away by Lind but the rebound nearly resulted in the game’s first goal.
Following the inital shot, the rebound went right to St. Mary’s forward Olivia Uhrich but Jamestown defender Carly Nelson disrupted the shot attempt and steered the shot wide left of the net.
“Carly Nelson played really well in the back,” Gibson said. “(She) cleaned up a lot of messes for us.”
Jamestown hasn’t won since April 20th when the Jays edged out St. Mary’s on 2-1 in Bismarck.
“Our attack is getting a little stagnant. We’re getting a little predictable, so we really need to try and change the face of how we attack the goal,” said Gibson. “We’re doing the same thing and teams are starting to realize that.”
But Gibson said the team is continuing to make improvements and Tuesday was no exception.
“One of the things I thought we did well was our central-midfield play was a lot better,” Gibson said. “We were connecting on a lot more passes, we were developing some build-up instead of just hoofing it down the field and hoping things work out. There were definitely some positives that came out of tonight’s game.”
The Jays will be looking to end their two-week winless skid on Thursday when they host Bismarck at 7 p.m. at the Rotary Soccer Field in Jamestown.
St. Mary’s 2, Jamestown 0
St. Mary’s 0 2 — 2
Jamestown 0 0 — 0
Scoring
First Half
No Scoring
Second Half
1, SM, Kalah Peterson, 39:13; 2, SM, Lily Obrigewitch, 12:37.
Goalkeeper saves: St. Mary’s, Nicole Moen 8; Jamestown, Jade Lind, 8.
Sun sports writer David Griswold can be reached at (701) 952-8462 or by email at dgriswold@jamestownsun.com
Tags: high school, sports, soccer, girls, jays, jhs
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