Aberdeen Central wasn’t having much fun after trailing for the first time this season, but enjoyment returned to the Golden Eagles in a big second half Friday evening at Brownell Activities Complex.
The Golden Eagles scored three goals in the final 20 minutes to rally for a 3-1 non-conference girls’ soccer win over Sioux Falls Lincoln following a pair of 30-minute lightning delays. It was Central’s fourth straight victory to start the season.
“At that first half, I said we played hard. We didn’t really have fun. It didn’t look like we were having any fun,” said Central coach Kendra Hanley. “And then as soon as we were reminded of, play hard, have fun, you could see the whole demeanor change within the team. They looked like they were having fun. They were playing for each other. The biggest thing, they were playing with their heart and you could see it on their shoulders, and they gave everything they had.”
Trailing heading into the final stages of the game, Central used their new-found energy to explode for a trio of goals.
Espynn Kuhfeld found the back of the net to tie the game in the 63rd minute off a corner kick from Chloecherie Heagley that went to Jaxi Lozenski, who headed it to Kuhfeld.
The Golden Eagles then produced the eventual game-winner in unlikely fashion in the 74th minute.
Lozenski was racing after a loose ball heading near the corner when the Lincoln goalkeeper ran out of the box to beat her to the ball. However, when the goalie got the ball out, it went to Central’s Brianna Fischer, who tried to get the ball on net as quick as she could.
“I saw her out of the box,” Fischer said. “I was like just kick it, if it goes in, then it goes in.”
Fischer booted the ball with her left foot while falling down from about 30 yards out. She didn’t get much on the attempt, but the angle was just out of the reach of the goalie who was scrambling to get back in front of the goal.
“I saw it hit the side post,” Fischer said, “and I was like oof, but then it went in.”
Lozenski, who was all over the field, then put a punctuation mark on the victory with a goal in the 77th minute.
“She’s very threatful, and she’s got sharp cuts and turns,” Hanley said. “We love having her on that offensive end.”
While Central has now scored 30 goals in its first four games, the Golden Eagles have allowed only two goals in those contests.
“They’re that backbone. It starts with them,” Hanley said of the defense. “If they don’t do their job, we don’t win these games.”
A big part of that defense is communication and teamwork, according to senior defender Megan Brakefield.
“We’ve been working in practice a lot staying strong, just communicating it all the through with each other and we all stay positive,” Brakefield said. “Whoever makes a mistake, we always cover for it. We’re really just working as a team together.”
Of course, when the team is averaging more than seven goals per game, it takes a lot of pressure off of the defense.
“It’s exciting for us. We try and tell them what to do, but we have a lot of confidence in them, too,” Brakefield said of team’s offensive weapons. “Watching them is so much fun. They’re so good and they work all together. I feel like we’re really creative, too, with that we do with our ball.”
The Golden Eagles knew that Lincoln posed the biggest challenge to date so far in the young season.
“All the teams we played before were good teams,” Fischer said, “but we knew that coming into this one, it would be our most challenging so far.”
It turned out that Central was up to the challenge, coming up big down the stretch against a formidable foe.
“We knew that coming in. We prepped for that. We knew what this game was going to be,” Hanley said. “It was an eye opener and they saw what they needed to do, and they matched what they needed to do, and we’re just so proud of them.”
The Golden Eagles are off to a stellar start to the season and will look to carry that momentum throughout the season.
“We want to be a threat. We are a threat,” Brakefield said. “We’re going to stay confident and play our game of soccer, and whatever challenges we have, we’ll face it. We always find a way around it.”
Central hosts Brandon Valley at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
While the win over Lincoln was a solid one, the Golden Eagles know that more challenges lie ahead.
“It’s motivating,” Hanley said of the team’s most recent victory. “We just know that we have to start preparing for that next game, because we have a lot of really strong opponents ahead of us.”
Sioux Falls Lincoln 1 0 – 1
Aberdeen Central 0 3 – 3
First half: 1, SFL, Kacie Adler (Taneal Whiting), 24th minute.
Second half: 2, AC, Espynn Kuhfeld (Jaxi Lozenski, Chloecherie Heagley), 74th minute; 3, AC, Brianna Fischer, 74th minute; 3, AC, Lozenski, 77th minute.
Shots: Sioux Falls Lincoln 3; Aberdeen Central 10.
Shots on Goal: Sioux Falls Lincoln 4; Aberdeen Central 7.
Goalies: Sioux Falls Lincoln, Leighton Crawford (5 saves); Aberdeen Central, Ava Beck (3 saves).
