East girls soccer gives up late goal, ties Gillette

But with six minutes of added time at the end of the second 10-minute period, Gillette’s Grace Roswadovski was able to add the equalizer as the Lady Camels fought back to end the match in a 2-2 draw.

“We’ve had some really unlucky bounces go our way, and maybe at some point it will change for us,” East girls soccer coach Jim Gardner said after the draw. “A lot of times you make your own luck and we’ve got to continue to do that.”

While Gardner was surely disappointed after having a win slip away, Gillette girls soccer coach Carl Matson was pleased with the resilience his team showed after giving up the late goal that almost led to a loss.

“The passion and the intensity and the desire we showed those last few minutes, that’s what we need to be doing every match,” Matson said. “I was really proud of the way we came back after that late goal.”

It looked like the two sides would head into the intermission in a scoreless tie, but Gillette’s Kennedy Schomer managed to sneak a shot past East’s Mackenzie Paintner from an awkward angle during stoppage time, giving Gillette a 1-0 halftime lead.

East’s Jessie Erickson tied the match 1-1 just before the hour mark, gathering a deflection in the attacking third of the field, turning, and firing from 21 yards out to beat Gillette’s Alyssa Stumbaugh to the upper left corner of the goal.

Laramie Lake started the second half in goal for East.

Lake filled in nicely as East held Gillette off the scoreboard in the second half to send the match into overtime.

“After we gave up that soft goal, I just felt like we needed a change. It was nothing against Mackenzie (Paintner), I just thought we needed to switch things up and Laramie (Lake) came in and had some big saves,” Gardner said.

With nothing doing in the first 10-minute period, the action picked up late in the match as a fortuitous bounce gave Morillon a clean look at goal from inside the goalie box, and when the senior gets an opportunity, rarely does she miss.

Unfortunately for East, Roswadovski got the same opportunity at the other end, showing she’s just as sure-footed as Morillon by putting in the tying goal for the final result.

By the box score, the two teams looked evenly matched in every category – East finishing with 10 shots and six of them on goal while Gillette had 11 shots with five on goal.

The only major discrepancy was in fouls as East was called for 18 and Gillette just five – much to Gardner’s chagrin. The veteran coach received a yellow card in the 48th minute after voicing his displeasure about a no-call on what he thought was a sure foul inside of the penalty box as Erickson was tripped from behind on a breakaway.

All the T-Birds can do now is move on, though, as a quick turnaround has them hosting Sheridan at 10 a.m. today at Okie Blanchard Stadium.

“It’s the same mantra we’ve had all season long,” Gardner said. “We’ve just got to make it to state to give ourselves a chance to win it.”

EAST 2, GILLETTE 2

Halftime: Gillette 1, East 0

Goals: Gillette, Schomer (Ayers), 40. East, Erickson (unassisted), 59. East, Morillon, (unassisted), 98. Gillette, Roswadovski (unassisted), 100.

Shots: East 10, Gillette 11. Shots on goal: East 6, Gillette 5. Saves: East 3 (Paintner 1, Lake 2), Gillette 4 (Stumbaugh).

Corner kicks: East 7, Gillette 6. Offsides: East 0, Gillette 1. Fouls: East 18, Gillette 5. Yellow cards: East 2 (Gardner 48, Miller 100).