Taylor Scott
Columbus East had a chance to see one of its potential new opponents for this year’s girls soccer sectional on Saturday afternoon, the the Olympians came away feeling confident after going toe-to-toe with one of that sectional’s best.
The Olympians built a 2-0 lead on Roncalli, only to see the Royals come back to match those two goals to forge a 2-2 tie.
“Roncalli is an excellent team,” East coach Ilya Schwartzman said. “They were 3-0 coming in, they beat some pretty good teams and they play excellent soccer. They’re physical, and I thought we matched that physicality very well. That’s really good competition that we witnessed today, and it will help us in sectional preparation.”
The Olympians (1-0-1) got on the board in the 22nd minute when Taylor Scott scored off an assist from Heidi Murphy. They led 1-0 at halftime, despite that being its only shot on goal in the half.
Nadia Harris
East added to its lead early in the second half when Nadia Harris knocked in a cross from Norah Dwenger in the 43rd minute. But three minutes later, Roncalli got on the board with a goal by Summer Fishel.
From there, the Olympians turned away several Royals opportunites over the next 30 minutes until Roncalli finally got the equalizer from Emily Sering in the 76th minute.
“We definitely were fatigued, but so were they,” Schwartzman said. “It was a tough battle.”
The Royals outshot East 16-8, putting nine shots on goal to the Olympians’ three. Kate Stiles played the first half in goal and posted three saves, and Anna Liimatta played the second half in goal and made four saves.
“I thought we were able to maintain pretty good possession,” Schwartzman said. “Overall, we played well defensively. We made a couple mistakes, and we have to learn from our mistakes.”
The Olympians are entering a tough week, playing at Class 3A No. 13 Bloomington South on Monday, 3A No. 16 Columbus North on Wednesday and a recently-added home game against Park Tudor on Saturday.
“We have a lot of tough teams on the schedule,” Schwartzman said.
