MTZ girls soccer goes 0-2 last week

By BLAKE FAITH
Staff Writer

The Mt. Zion girls soccer team lost two Apollo conference matches last week, one against Mattoon and one against Mahomet-Seymour.

Against Mahomet-Seymour the game was scoreless for 18 minutes. Both teams were trying to knock on the door and the Braves were the ones who opened up the scoring. McKenzie Krieger and Maddie Kendall did two one-pass combinations back and forth down the field and then Kendall netted the goal into the low-left corner of the net that gave the Braves a 1-0 lead.

The Braves defensive anchors of Elana Howard, Claire Horne, Brooke Boston and Maddy Kuiters along with Goalkeeper Chloe Kuncl preserved the clean sheet going into halftime.

The Bulldogs tied the match two minutes into the second half as Camryn Nelson netted a goal off a miscue that tied it at 1-1.

The Braves defensive anchors continued to hold down the fort as Kuncl made 10 saves in the match and the Braves got their offensive opportunities that included two shots just left of the goal by Kendall Allen, a shot just left from Krieger and a couple shots from Sydney Howerton that were just shy of going top shelf goals.

The Bulldogs broke the tie with less than eight minutes in the match when Erika Johnson netted the goal to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 win.

“We thought we competed and the we played hard” Head coach Jonathan Moore said. “And we were happy, we didn’t get the win, but we’re happy with the performance., We took a huge step forward into playing our post season and we always talk about wanting to be playing our best as we get into May, and hopefully we’re doing that.”

The Braves fall to 7-7 overall and 2-3 in Apollo conference play. The Braves will face Taylorville and Charleston this week. The match against Charleston will be senior night and will celebrate the lone senior in Kuiters. Kickoff will be at 4:30 p.m. and senior night will start at 4:15 p.m.