MANKATO -- The Worthington girls' soccer team ended up on the wrong side of an agonizingly close game for the second time in two days, losing 2-1 to Mankato Loyola on Tuesday.
The Trojans took the lead in the third minute when Cassie Landgaard sent a pass to Nicole Ektnitphong, who then beat both her defender and the goalie to put the ball in for the game's first goal.
The Crusaders leveled the game in the 21st minute when the Trojans failed to clear away a corner, which Crusader standout Melissa Sorensen turned into a goal.
WHS wasn't able to capitalize on outshooting ML 6-3 in the first half and the scores were level at halftime.
The Trojans had two near misses in the second half, the first when Nicole hit the crossbar and the next when Whitney Coriolan hit a shot off of the far post that bounced right along the goal line before the keeped gathered it up, but it was the Crusaders that were able to put across the winning goal.
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"It showed that the girls have played two tough games on the road, and we came really close -- we had a lead and we had a couple more chances that could have changed the game around," Smitty Ektnitphong said.
The Trojan defense of Nikki Russell, Raquel Barajas, Bernadette Boever and Lesley Anariba were noted by head coach Smitty Ektnitphong as having a standout game.
"We're still a young team we know that, and we know that we're going to have a lot of work ahead of us," Smitty Ektnitphong said. "If we're able to work on the things that we need to do to make us better I think we can be there in the end. I think we could be a team to watch at the end."
Worthington 1 0 -- 1
Mankato Loyola 1 1 -- 2
