AUBURN — Edward Little’s intensity matched Tuesday’s overcast skies and tepid temperatures for the first half of its KVAC girls’ soccer game with Lawrence.
But the Red Eddies have been a second half team all season, so there was no need to panic, especially with goalkeeper Molly Murray holding the Bulldogs at bay.
EL cranked it up in the second half and got goals from Kory Norcross, Taylor Landry and Emily Jacques to pull away with a 3-0 victory.
“Coach (Craig Latuscha) talks to us a lot about how we seem to always be a second half team, we never seem to show up in the first. But we picked it up,” said Norcross, who also had an assist.
Norcross broke the scoreless tie 5:43 into the second half when she collected a long pass from defender Sarah Hammond on the left wing and beat diving Lawrence goalie Paige Belanger (10 saves) to the lower right corner.
“We were so concerned with them pulling because we kept getting offsides. We just had to wait and wait and wait and wait,” Norcross said. “Sarah actually called it, too. She said, ‘Kory, get ready for the run.'”
Norcross and the Eddies (8-5) kept the pressure on. Three minutes later, Belanger deflected Norcross’ bid for the upper right corner. With 16 minutes left, Norcross got her head on a corner kick only to have it nick high off the right post. Olivia Paione later had a shot on a breakaway go wide left.
EL finally got the insurance goal with 5:25 left when Norcross’ pass from the left wing deflected off the foot of a Lawrence defender and right to a hustling Landry in front of the net.
Jacques added the final tally with 1:26 remaining.
Outshot 22-15 for the game, Lawrence (4-7-1) held a 10-7 edge in the first half, but that doesn’t do justice to how much more aggressive the Bulldogs were, and how fortunate the Eddies were to be tied at halftime.
“Lawrence came out pretty hungry,” said Latuscha, whose team beat the Bulldogs, 5-0, on Sep. 10. “They’re a pretty decent team. Their record doesn’t show how well they play. To be honest with you, I was a little nervous at halftime.”
Murray made six stops in the first half and 11 for the game to post her second shutout against Lawrence and seventh of the season. None was better than the diving save she made on a Mikaela Beane shot from the left corner 11 minutes into the game.
“She came down from the corner and she crossed it and I just dove for it. I didn’t know where the post was,” Murray said. “Our sweeper does a good job trying to clear those balls out when I can’t get to them.”
With Lawrence rolling up its backs to keep the pressure on, EL did have some scoring opportunities in transition, including a breakaway by Landry in the final minute of the half that went wide right.
“We talked at halftime about how we had to beat them to the 50/50 balls a little bit more and finish the opportunities that we get,” Latuscha said. “The first goal settled us down a little bit and we kind of took over the game after that.”
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