Girls face tough second half of season
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
The East Troy High School girls soccer team entered the second half of its own invitational finale Saturday looking for a spark.
And with the help of plenty of teamwork, that’s just what the Trojans found.
East Troy’s Aubrey Erdmann took a pass from Caroline Christensen and knocked in the game winner to lift the Trojans past West Allis Hale, 2-1. The win helped East Troy salvage a split after a 4-0 loss to Sauk Prairie earlier in the day.
There was plenty to like from the win, which boosted East Troy to 2-4-1 overall, coach Ed Furey said.
“(We played with) high energy (and) aggressive play (that) helped us maintain a possession edge in the game,” Furey said. “(Our) willingness to take the ball with our bodies and the ability to connect passes better than we have all season were big keys.”
Furey said the game-winning goal began on a pass from Natalie Bertschinger to Megan Mast, who centered the ball to Belle Verbeten, who then found Christensen. The score by Erdmann eluded the West Allis Hale goalie and landed in the far side of the goal.
East Troy’s Gracie Moker accounted for the Trojans’ first-half goal, as the teams went into the intermission tied at 1-1.
Goalie Kiley Komperud finished the match with six saves for the Trojans.
In the opening game of the day against Sauk Prairie, the Eagles broke a scoreless tie with four unanswered goals in the final 19 minutes of the second half to pull away.
“(They) held a slight possession edge in the first half,” Furey said. “We had several opportunities, but always seemed to look for one pass too many and passed on shooting opportunities.”
Furey said Sauk Prairie’s first goal at the 61-minute mark seemed to deflate his team a bit.
“You could see we were down slightly after that and gave them another goal just six minutes later,” he said. “Their final two goals were scored in garbage time in the last four minutes of the game.”
Komperud finished the match with 12 saves for East Troy.
In the first match of the week, the Trojans dropped a 3-0 decision to visiting Fort Atkinson, which led 2-0 at halftime and added another score in the second half. Komperud had four saves in the loss.
East Troy began a busy stretch Tuesday with a nonconference matchup at Greendale Martin Luther. The Trojans returned to Rock Valley Conference action Thursday at Clinton, followed by home games Friday against Jefferson and Monday against Westosha Central, both at 4:45 p.m.
Furey and his team have battled the weather all spring – like nearly every high school team in the state – which has been a bit of a struggle, he said.
And the schedule is going to get even crazier moving forward.
“Several games rescheduled really packs the games into the final three to four weeks of the season,” Furey said. “Practicing indoors in small spaces on a gym floor does not make for the best preparation for anybody, but most teams had the same challenges.
“We have three games this week, two in conference. The team is looking forward to getting players back from injury and seeing what kind of run we can put together.”
