EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville's girls soccer team is entering a break in their schedule on a fairly good note.
The Tigers, coming off a 3-1 win the night before at Triad, got a 76th-minute goal from Allysiah Belt off a Taylor Hansen corner kick to give EHS a 2-1 win over Belleville Althoff at Tiger Stadium Tuesday night, taking the Tigers to a 7-3-2 mark on the season entering the break; the Tigers don't play again until April 20 at home against Chatham Glenwood.
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Edwardsville's first goal came in the 40th minute from Abby Crabtree; with both goals coming late in both halves, that meant something to Tiger coach Abby Comerford. “That just shows the girls are playing to the end,” Comerford said. “Yesterday, we kind of got up early; not having that goal under our belt early – the girls just had to work a little bit harder and they did.”
Crabtree's final-seconds goal in the first half that sent both teams to the break tied 1-1 was, in Comerford's view, “huge. She hit it from about 30 yards out; she made that turn and looked at the goal and got it; it was great to see. It takes you into halftime with that spirit, 'OK, we got this – we've tied it back up'.”
Hansen's corner in the late going was well-placed, allowing Belt to get the ball to her head in traffic for the match-winner. “Hansen's been taking those corner kicks all season,” Comerford said. “They've been perfect balls that we've been able to get under a few.”
Crusader coach Juergen Huettner was pleased with his team's effort. “The way we played, I felt we deserved at least a tie,” Huettner said. “I actually thought we outworked them, but it is what it is. I believe things will even up over the course of a season and I think we got three bad breaks here so far (citing the two goals Tuesday and a last-second goal by Alton last week that forced a drawn result), so hopefully we can cash in as the season goes on.”
Althoff's goal came in the 27th minute when Amanda Kaltwasser took a shot that got past Tiger goalkeeper Regan Windau to put the Crusaders up 1-0. “Amanda didn't give up on the play,” Huettner said. “There were a couple of bad touches involved, but she stuck with the play, it bounced back to her and she got it and put it in. It was a good job on our end; that's what we've got to do, you have to be opportunistic against good teams like Edwardsville.”
Althoff shook off Crabtree's late first-half tying goal and kept at it as the second half went on, Huettner felt. “The kids came off and they were upset,” Huettner said. “I was a little bit worried how we were going to be coming into the second half, but we came out and kept playing our game.”
Belt's match-winner came with several Althoff defenders surrounding her. “There were about three around me, but somehow I got my head on it and it went in,” Belt said of the goal. “It's good, since we're going into spring break and we came off a loss to Normal (Community), but now we've won two games in a row and that's a big boost for our confidence.”
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