Prep Soccer: 3rd-ranked Whitewater girls hold off Northgate
By DOUG GORMAN
dgorman@newnan.com
The third-ranked Whitewater Lady Wildcats soccer team might just hold on to their ranking after Friday night’s Area 4-AAAAA game against the Northgate Lady Vikings.
But the Lady Vikings — and goalkeeper Mattea Lewis — made them earn it.
It took nearly 31 minutes into the contest before the Lady Wildcats found the back of the goal when Brooke Colangalo took a pass inside the box and scored from point-blank range.
“I thought it was an evenly-played match,” said Northgate head coach Bryan Hicks. “So I feel comfortable with the way we are progressing.
The Lady Vikings fell to 5-2 overall and 4-2 in Area 4-AAAAA play. Whitewater improved to 7-2 overall and 5-0.
Whitewater’s victory spoiled a solid performance by Lewis, who stopped her first 18 shots, including several diving saves.
Even after falling behind 1-0 late in the game, the Lady Vikings kept putting pressure on the Lady Wildcats side of the field.
Katie Mitchell’s corner kick late in the game found a teammate’s head in front of the net, but it went wide of the goal.
Northgate returned to play in the second half with much more energy.
Dallas Weaver’s shot early in the final period nearly gave Northgate the lead. A few minutes later, Mitchell worked the ball on a give-and-go with fellow sophomore Lilly Barron before feeding senior Micayla Crenshaw for a solid shot on net. Barron also put a shot off the post during another solid scoring chance for the Lady Vikings.
Opportunities were few and far between for the Lady Vikings in the first half while being outshot 10-1 in the opening 40 minutes.
Crenshaw attempted Northgate’s only shot of the first half at the 19-minute mark.
Whitewater had a chance to score the first goal of the game just seven minutes into the match, but a shot off of Kayla Smith’s foot went left of an open net.
Siblings Teegan and Annika Vangunt each had scoring opportunities turned away by Lewis.
The Lady Vikings went nearly 11 minutes without a decent scoring opportunity, but had a chance when Mitchell attempted the first corner kick of the game with about 29 minutes remaining in the second half.
Northgate’s second corner kick came four minutes later, but the attempt again came up short of its mark.
The loss snaps a two-game winning streak for the Lady Vikings.
(To view photos from this game, visit http://photos.times-herald.com/mycapture and click on Sports for the Photo Gallery.)
