FOREST HILLS NORTHERN 5 - SPARTA 0
HUSKIES ROLL TO CONFERENCE WIN OVER SPARTA
Back from the northern part of Michigan safely, the Forest Hills Northern Girls Soccer teams were back in action on Monday night taking on the Spartans from Sparta High School. Tonight’s contest would be yet another conference game and the 8th overall game in 12 days. “It has been a very long couple of weeks. From the time we got back from Spring Break, we have only had two days off; Sundays. We are going to get through this week and have a couple of days off to re-focus rest up” Head Coach Jamie Bogart said of his teams 8 games in 12 days. The Huskies will add their 9th game in 14 days when they take the field Wednesday vs. Grand Rapids Central.
The Huskies showed why they are the top team in the conference by supplying instant pressure along with scoring in the first three minutes of the game. Junior Maria Rich finished off a shot following the hard work of Senior Hanna Schlesinger. “Outside of taking the shot and putting it in the goal, Hanna’s hustle and hard work and crashing of the net is the real reason why Maria was able to get that goal” Bogart continued “We talked before the game about having Heart. Hanna worked very hard and never gave up; Hanna showed Heart”
The Huskies would get two more goals in the next 9 minutes to up their lead to 3-0 just 12 minutes into the game. Senior Andrea Byl would notch the Huskies second goal of the day and her second of the year just under 7 minutes into the game. Again, Byl would have the benefit of Schlesinger’s hard work.
The Huskies would make a couple substitutions’ which lead to Sophomore Olivia Griffith playing a ball into the box from the back line, to which Sophomore Teigan Mitcham bulldozed her way through a Sparta defender and the charging Sparta keeper to knock home her 7th goal of the season. “Teigan is one of the strongest players I have ever coached; anyone who tries to challenge her will be beat. Teigan won the ball and wasn’t going to be denied the goal” Bogart said of his Sophomore Striker.
The Huskies would go almost 20 minutes without scoring a goal, before Junior Brenna Sellman received a pass from Senior Andrea Byl along the right flank. Sellman cut the ball back beating a Spartan defender and played a ball into the box where fellow Junior, Maria Rich put her shot past the Sparta keeper for her second goal of the night and 5th of the year. “That 20 minute scoring drought was kind of funny, we had several missed chances including hitting the post 3 times. But we were just not ourselves during this stretch or the entire game for that matter” Bogart commented.
The Huskies would head into half-time with a 4-0 lead.
The second half gave way to more Husky pressure with several missed opportunities including a goal that was called back, and hitting the post 4 more times. “It was kind of frustrating but credit Sparta for not going away from their defensive set up. It’s hard to break through an 11 player shell in the box” Bogart said of the second half. “We played better, however we didn’t utilize the entire field like we talked about at half-time. We just wanted to force the ball into traffic”.
The Huskies would get a goal, when Junior Kristiana Griffith collected a ball, turned and played a beautiful ball through the Sparta defense to a hard running Kat Krukowski. The Sophomore got behind and outran the Sparta defense. Krukowski, redeeming herself from an earlier break away in the season, collected herself, picked her spot and just placed it in the side netting. “That breakaway miss earlier in the season has been a little bit of a running joke, Kat made this one count!!” Bogart said of the Sophomore Defender.
That would be all the scoring the Huskies would get and ended up with the 5-0 win. The Huskies improved to 6 wins and 0 losses in the conference and 6 wins and 3 losses overall. The Huskies have little time for rest as they return home Wednesday vs. Grand Rapids Central in another important conference game. Kick off of the JV game is at 5:00pm while the Varsity will start around 6:40pm.
The Huskies showed why they are the top team in the conference by supplying instant pressure along with scoring in the first three minutes of the game. Junior Maria Rich finished off a shot following the hard work of Senior Hanna Schlesinger. “Outside of taking the shot and putting it in the goal, Hanna’s hustle and hard work and crashing of the net is the real reason why Maria was able to get that goal” Bogart continued “We talked before the game about having Heart. Hanna worked very hard and never gave up; Hanna showed Heart”
The Huskies would get two more goals in the next 9 minutes to up their lead to 3-0 just 12 minutes into the game. Senior Andrea Byl would notch the Huskies second goal of the day and her second of the year just under 7 minutes into the game. Again, Byl would have the benefit of Schlesinger’s hard work.
The Huskies would make a couple substitutions’ which lead to Sophomore Olivia Griffith playing a ball into the box from the back line, to which Sophomore Teigan Mitcham bulldozed her way through a Sparta defender and the charging Sparta keeper to knock home her 7th goal of the season. “Teigan is one of the strongest players I have ever coached; anyone who tries to challenge her will be beat. Teigan won the ball and wasn’t going to be denied the goal” Bogart said of his Sophomore Striker.
The Huskies would go almost 20 minutes without scoring a goal, before Junior Brenna Sellman received a pass from Senior Andrea Byl along the right flank. Sellman cut the ball back beating a Spartan defender and played a ball into the box where fellow Junior, Maria Rich put her shot past the Sparta keeper for her second goal of the night and 5th of the year. “That 20 minute scoring drought was kind of funny, we had several missed chances including hitting the post 3 times. But we were just not ourselves during this stretch or the entire game for that matter” Bogart commented.
The Huskies would head into half-time with a 4-0 lead.
The second half gave way to more Husky pressure with several missed opportunities including a goal that was called back, and hitting the post 4 more times. “It was kind of frustrating but credit Sparta for not going away from their defensive set up. It’s hard to break through an 11 player shell in the box” Bogart said of the second half. “We played better, however we didn’t utilize the entire field like we talked about at half-time. We just wanted to force the ball into traffic”.
The Huskies would get a goal, when Junior Kristiana Griffith collected a ball, turned and played a beautiful ball through the Sparta defense to a hard running Kat Krukowski. The Sophomore got behind and outran the Sparta defense. Krukowski, redeeming herself from an earlier break away in the season, collected herself, picked her spot and just placed it in the side netting. “That breakaway miss earlier in the season has been a little bit of a running joke, Kat made this one count!!” Bogart said of the Sophomore Defender.
That would be all the scoring the Huskies would get and ended up with the 5-0 win. The Huskies improved to 6 wins and 0 losses in the conference and 6 wins and 3 losses overall. The Huskies have little time for rest as they return home Wednesday vs. Grand Rapids Central in another important conference game. Kick off of the JV game is at 5:00pm while the Varsity will start around 6:40pm.