The Aberdeen Central girls’ soccer team handed the Harrisburg Tigers their first loss of the season Saturday afternoon at Brownell Activities Complex to improve to 7-1-1. Deshani Peters scored the first goal for the Golden Eagles and later provided an assist to senior captain Taryn Hettich.

Despite a fast-paced energetic start from the two best teams from the Eastern South Dakota Conference this season, neither team created many goal-scoring opportunities for the majority of the first half.

“They have a lot of really good athletes and they like to play quickly,” said Central coach Merle Aske of the Tigers. “We knew we were going to have to absorb their pressure when they had the ball and not let them get too deep behind us.”

Harrisburg’s best chance in the first half came on a shot from midfielder Lindsay Wurth that Central goalkeeper Ciara Frank deflected onto the crossbar. Frank ended the game with 13 total saves.

The Eagles opened the scoring with two minutes remaining in the half when Peters curled her left-footed corner kick attempt towards the goal, and the ball made it all the way to the back post and landed in the net to give the home side a 1-0 lead right before halftime.

“Sometimes I go for the goal and sometimes I don’t,” Peters said. “I didn’t really mean to on that one, but I went in anyways.”

Central nearly scored again with 20 seconds remaining on a right-footed attempt from Abigail Witte that rolled awkwardly towards the goal and nearly caught the inside of the post. Despite the two sides being even for most of the half, the Eagles seized all the momentum in the final moments before heading to the locker room.

The Eagles continued their solid all-around play in the second half and scored a safety net goal with 23 minutes left in the game on another corner kick. Deshani Peters whipped in another left-footed cross into the box and connected with Taryn Hettich who supplied a powerful header into the back of the net.

“Usually, I look for either Taryn or Kailyn (Poppen) and usually they are there to crash it, so I was looking for them,” Peters said.

“The ball just has to be put in a dangerous position on corner kicks, and that’s what we did on both our goals,” Aske said. “On Taryn’s, she attacked the ball, carved out a place and beat everybody to the ball and put it in.”

The Eagles will play three more regular season games, the first coming Tuesday, Sept. 20 in Watertown, their quarterfinal opponent in last year’s state playoffs. Central defeated the Arrows in both matchups last season by scores of 1-0 and 3-0.

Harrisburg 0 0 – 0
Aberdeen Central 1 1 – 2

First Half

1, AC, Deshani Peters 38th minute.
Second Half

2, AC, Taryn Hetich (Peters) 57th minute.

Shots on Goal: Harrisburg 13, Aberdeen Central 13.
Goalies: Harrisburg, Stella Litzen (11 saves); Aberdeen Central, Ciara Frank (13 saves).