WORTHINGTON -- The night was windy in Worthington Tuesday, and the Worthington Trojans girls soccer team fought through another storm of adversity -- this time against the Fairmont Cardinals, who came away with an 8-0 victory.
The match was less than 10 minutes old when senior Fairmont forward Brooke Hunwardsen had already scored her third goal. The Trojans, who’d scored just two goals in their first nine games this season, fell to 0-10 with the loss on Meet the Trojans Night.
The Trojans know they’re going to be huge underdogs in most every match they play this fall, so they try to take incremental steps forward. On Tuesday, however, they were never legitimately close to scoring their third goal.
There were near-chances. At times, the Trojans were able to make two or three passes to get the ball reasonably close to the Cardinals’ net, but each time, rival defenders arrived at the 20- or 10-yard football lines painted on the field before a shot could be attempted.
“Our forwards need to be a little more aggressive, because the defense just comes in and pushes us off the ball,” head coach Emily Ahlquist said.
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Still, there were a few positive signs.
“The second half was better. We made some adjustments,” said Ahlquist. “And midfield, we were actually making midfield combinations in the second half.”
Fairmont (8-4) led 6-0 at halftime. After Hunwardsen’s flurry of goals, a fourth was scored by senior Claudia Bleess who inserted herself in front of the WHS net and kicked a slow roller that got in.
Goals by Emma Schultze with 10:13 remaining in the half, and another by Isabelle Lenort with 24 seconds to go, brought the teams into intermission.
With 38:53 left in the second half, Fairmont’s Abby DeWitt struck a beautifully bended shot from 18 yards that slipped under the top bar. And with 39 seconds before game’s end, the Cards put in an eighth goal for good measure.
Try as they might, WHS just couldn’t put a good shot on the Fairmont net.
“We didn’t make our team goal for the score,” said Ahlquist. “But we made our team goal of giving 100 percent to the end.”
Fairmont 6 2 -- 8Worthington 0 0 -- 0
