It took a while to find the answer, but once they did, the Aberdeen Central Golden Eagles responded in rapid manner Friday afternoon.
Central broke away from a scoreless tie with three goals in less than 10 minutes on the way to a 6-1 win over Spearfish in girls’ soccer action at the Brownell Activities Complex.
“It’s always tough to know what to do in the game when you start out. The first game everybody is going to be a little nervous,” said Central coach Merle Aske. “It took a while for us to figure out how to get by them offensively. The girls figured out that they were just staying flat and going forward so we had to hold off and play better ball, once we figured out a way to get in behind them, our speed kind of took over.”
Courtney Nipp scored the first goal of the game in the 29th minute on an assist from Kailyn Poppen, but the Spartans answered a minute later to tie the game.
Poppen then produced back-to-back goals in the final four minutes of the opening half to put the Golden Eagles in control.
“We started to connect better,” Poppen said, “and we realized that if just calmed down and worked our way around girls, it would be a lot easier than just trying to force it.”
From there, Central poured it on in the second half with three more goals, two from Taryn Hettich and one from Abby Witte for the final margin of difference.
Meanwhile, Spearfish was not able to mount much of a challenge during the contest aside from their first-half goal.
“The biggest thing is our back line did really good holding off,” Aske said. “I think they only had a couple of decent looks at the goal.”
Central ended up with 17 shots on goal and found a rhythm following a slow start in the initial contest of the season.
“We did get a little nervous, but then once we got that first one we realized that we could do it,” Poppen said of the first goal of the season, “and then they got theirs and then we just tried to redo what we did the first time and calm down and control ourselves.”
The Eagles were able to use both their strength and their speed to their advantage.
“We learned how they play and how we can go against them,” Poppen said, “and we also learned how to tire them out and work around them.”
Central is right back at it today hosting Douglas-Rapid City Christian-New Underwood at noon.
“We’re not sure what to expect from them,” Aske said. “We’re going to show up and do what we have to do.”
Spearfish 1 0 – 1
Aberdeen Central 3 3 – 6
First Half
1, AC, Courtney Nipp (Kailynn Poppen), 29th minute; 2, S, Emilee Hunsley, 30th minute; 3, AC, Poppen (Deshani Peters, Lauren Joosten), 36th minute; 4, AC, Poppen (Peters), 38th minute.
Second Half
5, AC, Taryn Hettich (Makylie Miller), 42nd minute; 6, AC, Abby Witte, 60th minute; 7, AC, Hettich, 70th minute.
Shots on Goal: Spearfish 7; Aberdeen Central 17.
Goalies: Spearfish, Lauren Potter (11 saves); Aberdeen Central, Taylor Thorstenson (6 saves).
