ADNA — A late free kick made the final few minutes interesting for Onalaska on Wednesday night in Adna, but the Loggers held on to top the Pirates 3-2 and improve to 2-0 in Central 2B League play.
“Getting a couple wins gets us ahead of the curve,” Onalaska coach Christopher Van Clifford said. “We’re excited about that.”
The Loggers got on the board first in the 20th minute of the game, when Leighton Underhill slotted an excellent pass through the middle to Emilee Rodriguez, who promptly placed it in the back of the net moments later.
Just nine minutes later, a similar connection occurred between Piper Iverson and Kendall Iverson, with the latter putting Onalaska up 2-0 before the break.
Fifteen minutes into the second half, Underhill ended up on the receiving end of another stellar pass from Gracin Vickers, and Underhill slotted it home to put the Loggers up 3-0.
“We were linking up pretty well on offense,” Van Clifford said. “We did a good job connecting the passes and getting in the right place. It looked pretty good.”
Adna got on the board five minutes later thanks to a goal from Gracie Stone, and the Pirates began pressing for a second shortly after.
That second goal ended up coming in the 78th minute, when Alyson Terry drilled a looping free kick from around 35 yards out.
It was a similar goal to one that the senior scored on Monday against Toledo.
“She’s just gotten more consistent there,” Adna coach Patrick Richardson said. “She spent a lot of time in the offseason out here shooting and doing different things. I think she’s honed that in, and I think her confidence has gotten better as she’s been able to prove that she can do that.”
The final push for a tying goal ensued immediately after the kickoff following Terry’s goal, but the Loggers were able to prevent a Grade-A chance in the final moments to preserve the victory.
Van Clifford noted that his defense did lapse on Adna’s first goal, but he credited Terry for converting on the free kick and gave his defense credit for their overall effort.
“I think we did a good job defensively,” Van Clifford said. “Our defense usually plays pretty tight and they have good ball control, so I’m pretty happy with that.”
Adna now sits at 1-2 in league play, as the Pirates beat Raymond/South Bend last week before falling to Toledo 8-2 on Monday.
Playing both Toledo and Onalaska twice in a three-day stretch led to some tired legs for the Pirates, which Richardson said may have led to some of the spacing issues in the defensive third.
“Just trying to maintain what we were doing was kind of tough, but they were powering through it,” Richardson said. “When they kind of start to realize they can do something, then it clicks.”
“They can compete with (Toledo and Onalaska),” Richardson said. “On the right day, we have a shot at anybody … It gives you something to work with and build off of, I think that’s the biggest part of it.”
The Pirates will be back on the field in another two days, as they’ll head north to face Lincoln in a non-league matchup in Tacoma.
“It’s a game where we can move people around, get different people in there to just see what else we have,” Richardson said.
After Lincoln, Adna (5-6, 1-2 C2BL) will return home to host Toutle Lake on Wednesday.
Onalaska (6-3, 2-0 C2BL) will be back at home on Monday to host Forks. It’ll be the first of three straight days with games, as the Loggers will host Highland in a non-league game on Tuesday and before heading to Ocosta for a league game on Wednesday.
“We just want to keep rolling,” Van Clifford said.
