Deer Isle-Stonington High School’s Katie Hutchinson gets a touch to break up the field during a home game against Narraguagus on September 16. By Jack Scott
Deer Isle—The girls soccer team lost to Sumner 4-1 on September 11. Both teams played very even and even had similar numbers of players. We played a strong first half, with Katie Hutchinson scoring the first goal on a nice pass across the goal from Macey Brown. We were tied at the half but lost some of our steam in the second half. We trailed 2-1 with less than 15 minutes left and gave up a couple of unfortunate goals near the end. Coach Esther Adams only had stats from the first half, which showed that Sumner had 11 corner kicks and four direct kicks, which gave them too many good opportunities.
The girls lost a similar game to Calais, 4-1 on September 14, but this time with only 10 players. Talk about playing at a disadvantage. Again we were tied at one apiece at the half, with our goal coming off a direct kick from Kaylee Morey, who switched with Katie Hutchinson taking over at goalie. Calais scored another goal in the early second half. Understandably, we had to play a more defensive game being shorthanded.
I have to commend the Calais coach, who said he would approve giving us a two-minute rest halfway through the second half. I felt that was a true gesture of sportsmanship. Even so, we lost steam and allowed Calais too many opportunities. Calais had nine corner kicks and a penalty shot, and Katie Hutchinson did a superb job in goal saving 20 of 24 shots; many of the saves were point blank shots. When the defense broke down, Calais was able to get open and blast a shot at the goal.
The girls got their first win beating Narraguagus 5-2 on September 16, again with only 10 players on the field. Macey Brown scored early in the game on an assist from Rylee Eaton, and then scored less than a minute later on a breakaway. Jill McDonald scored later in the first half on a throw-in by Rylee Eaton and we led 3-1. In the second half, Jill McDonald scored a goal picking up a goal kick by Kaylee Morey, and then after a Narraguagus goal, she scored on a breakaway to give us some breathing room. Kaylee Morey made four saves on six shots and we made nine shots of which four were saved.
The girls are 1-3 and are playing well as a team and using passes to move the ball ahead. We need to be more aggressive at the goal mouth and charge the goalie when the ball is headed there, like we did against Narraguagus. Even with such small numbers, we are playing as hard as we can, though we do get worn down near the ends of the halves.