The Lady Eagles of Eastside played to a hard-earned 2-2 tie with the Lady Bulldogs of Morgan County Monday night at Cousins Middle School.
Amber Lafond opened the scoring with a goal off a throw-in from Emily Carroll seven minutes in to put Eastside (10-6-1) up 1-0. Morgan County (8-3-1) tied the match 7:29 before half time.
During the first half, Eastside lost one of its most experienced players in Tara Harrison, who left with 24 minutes left in the first half due to an injury.
She returned to the field with just over 25 minutes remaining in the match.
"Defensively, we had an up and down game," Eastside coach Joel Singleton said. "We took a couple of hits when Tara (Harrison) went out early in the first half. Morgan scored two goals, one in the first half and one in the second half, both on the side where she was at, so we never quite adjusted to playing without her in the game for a little while."
The second half saw two Lady Bulldog shots hit off the post in the first 3:10. Sarah Gaddis put the Lady Eagles back up 2-1 off an assist from Ebonee Best with 31:12 left to play. It took Morgan County only 16 seconds to net the equalizer, a bomb from the left into the far post.
"We had several bright spots," Singleton said. "Freshman Hailey Walden got a lot of good time at stopper, Kari Dylong kept things going in the back, Carly Farrow made some really good saves. Amber Lafond had a lot of shot opportunities. We had two corner kicks that we were very close on."
Not only did the game end in a tie but so did the shot totals, with each team logging 19 shots.
"We worked hard," Singleton said. "They were a very physical team. Overall: good effort. We'll take the tie. We'd rather have the win, but we are pleased that we get out of there with a tie. Morgan's a good team and they've had a good season."
In the night cap, the Eastside boys (10-5-2) beat Morgan County (12-2) 6-2. Trent Taylor and Jacob Alwes each scored twice. Jake Shelton also notched a goal. Yet the game winner belonged to Jabari Bennett who made his first varsity goal count.
