MP girls? soccer team falls to Holy Trinity

BY ANDY KRUTSINGER

Mt. Pleasant News

Holy Trinity just had too much depth up front for the Mt. Pleasant girls? soccer team on Thursday evening.

The Panthers had trouble stopping a quick Crusader offense, falling to HTC, 7-1, in a non-conference home game.

The Crusaders put up an early goal, putting in a shot on the near side of the goal, with 35:47 left in the first half.

Abbie Liechty, who started the game in net, was on her toes for the entire first half. She made a jumping save to keep the game at 1-0, with 30 minutes left in the half.

With 22 minutes left in the first half, Shyla Hiler found Lauren Halls with a cross pass in front of the goal. Ralls? shot was just off to the left and the game stayed 1-0.

Liechty continued to turn away most of the HTC shots, but the Crusaders broke through again with 14 minutes left in the first half. After that goal, HTC rattled off three more over the next 15 minutes and the Panthers trailed, 5-0, at halftime.

The Panther offense woke up in the second half with multiple good chances. Ralls found Hiler with a cross pass to start the period, but Hiler?s shot went just over the crossbar. Ralls had her own shot right afterwards, but the HTC goalkeeper turned the shot away.

Elizabeth Heerdt was in net for the second half of the game and made a number of saves throughout the period. The HTC lead was stuck at 5-0 for the majority of the second half.

With just 6:27 remaining, Catherine Prough found a lane on the far side of the goal and sent in a laser off a Mary West assist to cut the lead to 5-1.

The Crusaders, however, bounced right back with two goals in the final minutes, and the Panthers suffered a six-goal loss.

Mt. Pleasant fell to 3-3 with the loss. The Panthers will look to improve on a 1-2 conference record in their next game, on Monday, April 25, at 4:30 p.m., against Washington.