Fall Mountain Girls Soccer Fought Hard in Defeat

By Dan Barile
EAGLE TIMES CORRESPONDENT
LANGDON, NH — After losing both matchups against Kearsarge last season, the Fall Mountain girls varsity soccer was looking to return the favor in their Wednesday, Sept. 6, matchup at John Cooper Hubbard Soccer Field.

The Fall Mountain Wildcats opened the scoring in the 14th minute when left winger Aubrey Thomas found the back of the net. Thomas received a pass on the left half of the field from Selah Fredrick. She capitalized by booting the ball into the right half of the net.

Three minutes later, the Wildcats nearly scored again when midfielder Mariella Tsitsonis sent a lofting shot at the goalie. Kearsarge’s goalie dropped the attempt, but quickly recovered and fell on the ball before it could cross the goal line.

In the 28th minute, Kearsarge would tie the game at one with a spectacular shot by Ellie Wiemer. The tall midfielder sent a rocket from outside the penalty arc, which went just over the outstretched hands of Fall Mountain’s goalie.

With time winding down in the half, Fall Mountain responded with another goal in the 37th minute. Avery Ducharme notched the goal for the Wildcats and Fredrick tallied another assist.

With a 2-1 lead, and just more than three minutes remaining in the half, Fall Mountain seemed destined to go into the half with the lead. Kearsarge had other ideas as only 19 seconds later, they would tie the game on a goal from Maddie Thorp.

While allowing the quick score was disappointing for Fall Mountain, going into the half tied still seemed like a positive result. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, it did not work out that way. During stoppage time, the speedy Carla Grant took the ball down the right side and fired a laser from outside the 18-yard box. Grant’s shot stayed just under the top crossbar and gave the Cougars a 3-2 going into the half.

During the first 24-minutes of the second half, neither team could find the back of the net despite three corner kicks by Fall Mountain.

In the 64th minute, Kearsarge put a damper on the Wildcats’ hopes of a comeback when left winger Chloe Hasey scored to give Kearsarge a 4-2 lead. Fall Mountain fought hard to the end, but another goal was not in the cards for the young Wildcats. The Cougars held on for a 4-2 victory despite being outshot, 12-6, by Fall Mountain.

Fall Mountain Head Coach George Tsitsonis said the Wildcats dominated in possessions and played well as a team.

“I feel our girls played a really solid 80 minutes with the exception of a few moments in transition,” he said. “The first half was amongst the best this team has played. We dominated possession and created a series of chances. Unfortunately, instead of going into the half up 2-1, we gave up two goals in 1:18 with less than two minutes left to go in the half. We need to learn to see out those periods because we did something similar against Stevens on Saturday night (Sept. 2). Despite the heat and fatigue, however, and the fact that we have a small squad, our kids battled amazingly well. We had several close chances in the second half to make it 3-3, but we couldn’t convert, and they scored against the run of play.”

With the loss, Fall Mountain moves to 1-1-1. The Wildcats opened the season with a 3-2 victory over Monadnock and earned a 2-2 tie against Stevens in the Charity Cup. Kearsarge is now 3-0-1 on the season.

Fall Mountain’s next game is Sept. 12 at Mascoma Valley. The Wildcats swept the season series last year by scores of 4-1 and 4-2.