Locked in a scoreless battle at halftime against an upset-minded Columbus East squad, Columbus North coach David Young realized he needed to do a little something different in the second half.
So Young moved high-scoring attacking midfielder Jenna Lang out wide and left fellow senior Emily Ellis to roam the middle. As a result, the pair connected on a pair of goals to give the Class 3A No. 7 Bull Dogs a 2-0 victory.
“At halftime, we talked and made some adjustments,” Young said. “Based on the play, we kind of understood what they were going to try to do to us, so we made some adjustments personnel-wise. We started attacking the width a little bit more, moved Jenna around a little bit and were able to get that first one.”
That first one came about 3 1/2 minutes into the second half. Ellis, who had put a shot of the crossbar in the 10th minute, finished this time after gathering the rebound from a shot by Lang.
“It definitely always gets your adrenaline going, gets you moving, gets your team up in good spirits,” Ellis said. “The whole entire first half, we were knocking on the door. We were hitting the crossbar. Halftime, we had a really positive talk. Coach was great at keeping it all positive. He gives us pointers, but he made some great adjustments. He pushed Jenna wide to the 7 to open up some space in the middle, and that was a really good attack to get the first through ball for a goal. It got us really excited and got the game going in our direction.”
After that, the Olympians (1-3) spent some time on the Bull Dogs’ end of the field. After managing just one shot in the first half, they put three on goal in the final 40 minutes.
But with East pushing for the potential equalizer, Ellis found Lang for a breakaway in the 77th minute to make it 2-0.
“The first half and a little bit in the second, my shots just weren’t falling how I wanted them to,” Lang said. “That combination just went through, and it worked out, and I was able to get a shot off, and it went through luckily. It was just kind of a relief to get that second goal just to kind of close it off.”
The loss was the second heartbreaker to a highly-ranked team in three days for the Olympians. They fell to 3A No. 6 Bloomington South 2-1 on Monday night.
“I’m very pleased with a lot of things,” East coach Ilya Schwartzman said. “Work ethic is great. Our fitness level is great. We just need to start scoring, and that should come as we get into the rest of the schedule.”
North finished with a 17-4 shot advantage, putting eight shots on goal to three for East. Anna Liimatta recorded six saves for the Olympians, including two on close-range shots by Lang in the first half.
Schwartzman praised the play of Liimatta, along with defenders Gabi Schuetz, Alexis Spurgeon, Norah Dwenger and Allison Craig.
“From Day 1, we knew we had a pretty good defensive unit,” Schwartzman said. “We have a great back four. I thought Anna had a great game again tonight. I thought Gabi and Alexis stepped up, and Norah and Allison are always solid. From the back four to Kylie Hatcher, who is playing the 6 and doing a great job, I thought defensively, we did a very good job. We shut them down for a very long time. They’re a great offensive team. There are a lot of weapons that are hard to contain, but we did a good job. We’ve proven that we can shut down some of the best.”
Mallory Gilley finished with three saves for the Bull Dogs. She was protected by the back line of Nitya Chenanda, Riley Schumm, Charlotte Loheide and Emma Bennett.
“Regardless of records, regardless of rankings, this match means everything to the players,” Young said. “No matter who is higher ranked, who’s the better team, everything is out the window. The girls are playing for pride, and they’re playing for everybody in the community, and you saw that with them tonight.”
