Gremlins overcome first-half struggles
SLIPPERY ROCK — Karns City waited.
Chances weren’t materializing, it seemed, for the whole of the first half of the Gremlins’ girls soccer matchup with Slippery Rock. Out of the half, once opportunities came, they couldn’t convert.
Moral of the story? Patience pays off.
Thanks to a pair of goals in the final 25 minutes of its clash with the Rockets, Karns City came out on the right side of a 2-1 decision at Troy-Alan Stadium Tuesday night.
For half of the contest, though, it was Slippery Rock (0-2) that had control.
The game’s first threat came on a Slippery Rock corner kick about five minutes into the action, when senior Hannah Plunkard’s corner kick reached Eve Miller, who prodded it slightly wide right.
Just over a minute later, the Rockets were awarded another corner. Capitalizing on the second chance, Plunkard dished the ball into the box from the right flag. After it rattled around for a moment, junior Brooke Arblaster poked it in.
Over the rest of the period, the defending District 9 champion Gremlins (1-2) would only muster two shots, one of which was on goal and both coming with less than 2:15 before the intermission. The break allowed Karns City coach Tracy Dailey to adjust.
“We saw their defenders playing a little higher,” Dailey said. “We thought we could really keep our forwards closer together and (have them) work more together. They (Slippery Rock) were picking anything we tried to do in the first half.”
By drawing the Rockets’ defenders in, the Gremlins opened things up offensively.
“It was frustrating at first,” Karns City senior McKenna Martin said. “I feel like, at the end of the first half, we got momentum and we started connecting more … We picked it up again in the beginning of the second.”
Her team notched more shots in the six minutes out of the half than they did in the entirety of the first 40 minutes. Still, three breakaways — two from senior captain Emma Dailey — failed to connect.
The opposing defense was standing tall, especially Daugherty — whose four saves over that span preserved the Rockets’ lead. Then, nearly 15 minutes into the second stanza, Karns City freshman Sophia Bonetto leveled the scoreboard with the help of Hanna Dailey’s assist.
“All of her hard work paid off in the few minutes that she was in and scored for us,” Tracy Dailey said. “Definitely a momentum changer.”
Before the Gremlins climbed ahead with 9:19 to go, Slippery Rock had a few chances to reclaim the edge. Karns City goalkeeper Cecelia Morrow saved a shot as the clock dipped under 22 minutes and, 11 minutes later, Miller’s free kick sailed over the crossbar.
That allowed Martin, last season’s Butler Eagle Girls Soccer Player of the Year, to soon after take a pass in stride and deposit the go-ahead marker.
“We went into that second half knowing that we wanted to win this game, (that) we were going to win this game,” she said. “We were confident and we just kept working at it.”
The score meant a second loss to start the season for Slippery Rock. Unfazed, Rockets coach Sarah Vermilya was pleased with what she saw, especially with her side’s ability to create some offensive energy.
“Soccer is a game of runs, just like basketball,” Vermilya said. “Ultimately, who has the ending run usually ends up on top. It was the best game that we, collectively as a team, have played all season.”
Karns City will next play on Thursday, at home against Brookville. The Rockets will travel to Mercer next Tuesday.
