WINDSOR- Green Mountain’s Paige Karl exploded for four second half goals as the Chieftains overcame a two-goal deficit to edge the Yellow Jackets on Saturday morning, 4-3.
Playing before a big homecoming crowd, Windsor was the quicker team and more intense for much of the first 40 minutes, controlling play for long stretches of time. The midfield area was where the action was, as Windsor’s Olivia Rockwood and GM’s Karl were the centerpieces for each team trying to hit open runners and slot passes to open spaces.
Windsor struck first as Elliot Rupp drove toward the right side of goal and fired a shot into the far corner from a perfect assist by Evelyn Page, putting the Yellow Jackets up 1-0. GM had a few chances to even the game out but Adi Prior was solid in net for Jeff Bachey’s Windsor squad. Morgan McKeen, Kate Murphy and Victoria Sauer were strong in the defensive zone for Windsor, as well.
With time ticking away, Page’s speed helped her slip between two GM defenders and she hit a blast that found net for Windsor’s second goal just before the halftime buzzer sounded, putting the Yellow jackets up 2-0.
“We were in a fight today and I made a few changes at halftime that opened things up for us a bit and limited Windsor’s tempo” said GM head coach Carolynn Hamilton.
Some of those changes were to put Karl on the striker line and also place Hannah Robinson into the midfield slot. With Karl running free on net, she nailed her first goal to cut the lead to 2-1 after GM had extended time in the Windsor side of the field. Bachey made some moves of his own on defense while opening up his Windsor offense a tad.
With a bit more space in the center of the pitch, Page made a move on net and her shot was out of the leaping reach of Alex Hutchins to put Windsor back up by two scores, 3-1. “That was a big goal for us but we also needed to eliminate any opportunities GM could use and looking back, we just didn’t do that well enough,” said Bachey after the game. Those opportunities would end up on the foot of Karl as she cut Windsor’s lead to 3-2 with a shot from the top of the goal box.
“I put Robinson at midfield and with Madison Wilson and they just took over that area of the field for us,” said Hamilton after the game. That control of play allowed the GM forwards Karl, Aedan Cooper and Erin Otis to get good looks on net as all the momentum was in favor of the visitors. Karl’s third goal was a blister of a shot, crushing the ball towards the net with 2 defenders marking her up. She split between them for her hat trick goal. Windsor was looking for the go ahead goal when Brooke McKeen and Page pushed forward but once again the ball ended up on the foot of Karl with Holly Putnam on one side and Lexy Merrill on the other running shoulder to shoulder with her as she moved toward net.
The GM go-ahead goal was a shot from Karl that whistled past Prior who had no chance of stopping it, giving GM their first lead of the game, 4-3 with under 3 minutes remaining and giving Karl her 4th goal of the game.
“I just try to give my best effort in every game and honestly if it wasn’t for those great passes from my teammates I wouldn’t have nearly as many opportunities as I do,” said Karl after the game Saturday. “I’m very fortunate to have those types of players on my team and today our effort was needed because Windsor came to play.”
Windsor never really mounted any strong challenges for the remainder of the game as the time ticked away giving GM a hard fought 4-3 win.
“Even though we came up short today, I think we have taken a big step in the right direction against a very talented GM team and a great player like [Paige Karl],” said Bachey after the game field had cleared.
Green Mountain improves to 6-1 while winning their last five games. Windsor stands at .500 with a 3-3 record.
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