Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter
It looked good for a while.
But things changed for the Highlands Ladybirds soccer team in a matter of 20 seconds. Highlands led 1-0 until Stephanie Rowland scored two goals in 14 seconds to lead the visiting South Oldham Lady Dragons to a 2-1 win Saturday at Tower Park.
Highlands fell to 2-5-2 overall and South Oldham improved to 4-4. Highlands is 1-1-2 in games decided by one goal or less.
"I thought we played pretty well," said Tommy Kearns, Highlands head coach. "We made two costly mistakes. You end up losing 2-1 when you probably should be winners. It's frustrating. The good thing we can take from (Saturday) is we played a good team and had more of the play (on offense)."
Highlands had plenty of chances to score. The Ladybirds had eight shots and eight corner kicks to six shots and no corner kicks for the Lady Dragons. They had a number of chances in front of the opposing net on those corner kicks, but could not punch the ball in past South Oldham goalkeeper Maddie Malueg. Malueg made seven saves on the day.
"You have to be willing to put your body on the line sometimes to get that ball past the goal line," Kearns said. "We had two or three chances cleared off the goal line in the first half. (Malueg) was all the way in the goal and managed to keep it out. The reason we got corner kicks is we applied pressure to their defense."
At the other end, Sarah Owen and Jesse Daley again split halves in net. Owen made one save in the first half and Daley had three in the second half.
Highlands broke through with its first goal in three games just 3:48 into the second half. Taylor Vaughn took a shot before Brooklynn Rivers hit in the rebound.
Rivers has six on the year. That happens to be all but one of Highlands' goals this season.
That lead held up until 10:18 remained in the game. Rowland scored in front of the net. Highlands had two chances to clear the ball on the play.
Rowlands scored just 14 seconds later when she received a pass and drove past a Highlands defender. She placed the shot perfectly for the game-winning goal.
Highlands is missing two key seniors to injury now in Ava Abner and Kara Painter. Painter tore her left Anterior Cruciated Ligament and is out for the season. But Painter does not want her teammates to dwell on the injuries.
"Each player on our team is strong," Painter said. "Our team can win no matter who is out. We just need to get our heads up and move on to the next play. That's our motto."
The Ladybirds take on Louisville Assumption at 6 p.m. in the Lexington Catholic Cup on Tuesday.
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