Central Oregonian

Cowgirls drop close match to Huskies

Crook County fails to hold 2-0 lead in tough loss to Sweet Home

Lon Austin

October 08, 2012

The Crook County Cowgirls are struggling late in games.

For the second time in less than a week the Cowgirls have had a lead late in the second half of a soccer match only to see the lead slip away late.

On Saturday, the Cowgirls took a 2-0 lead early in the second half of a non-league match against the Sweet Home Huskies and then struggled down the stretch as the Huskies scored the final three goals of the match to take a 3-2 victory.

The Huskies were able to score three second-half goals off corner kicks in the comeback victory.

“They had a girl with a really good kick to get the ball in there,” said Crook County head coach Rich Abrams. “We don’t have girls that are good at heading the ball out so it just kind of gets into a goal mouth scramble and somebody just knocks it in through a sea of legs.”

The Cowgirls controlled much of the first half of the match. Nonetheless, the only goal they could muster was a breakaway goal by Jena Ovens 22 minutes into the match. When Ovens scored again eight minutes into the second half off a pass from Miranda Smith, it looked like the Cowgirls were in control of the match.

However, the Huskies came storming back, finally scoring the go-ahead goal with nine minutes remaining in the match.

The match was eerily similar to the Cowgirl’s match against Ridgeview Tuesday afternoon where the Cowgirls held a 3-0 lead before finally falling 5-4 to the Ravens.

Like Tuesday’s match, the Cowgirls had a chance to tie late in the contest. Tuesday, it was a penalty kick that prevented the Cowgirls from earning a tie. Saturday, Ovens had a breakaway scoring opportunity with 3:42 left in the match and was fouled just outside the penalty area.

Smith blasted a shot at the goal on the ensuing free kick, but the ball sailed over the top of the goal. Less than a minute later, Crook County was fouled again, but this time, Sami Curry’s free kick rolled into a wall of Sweet Home defenders and was cleared out to the Crook County end of the field.

“We were working on a more sustainable offense today,” Abrams said. “Our ball control, receiving, and so on is starting to get good enough that we can begin working on some new things. We had a few good things going on.”

With the loss, Crook County falls to 1-7 while Sweet Home moves to 3-5-1 on the year. The Cowgirls are back in action today when they host the 4-4-1 Mountain View Cougars in a 3 p.m. contest. It is the second time the two teams have met this year with the Cougars winning the first contest 8-0.