IAC GIRLS SOCCER: SVEC RIDES THREE SECOND-HALF GOALS TO 4-2 WIN OVER STATE-RANKED TIOGA (24 PHOTOS) (2024-10-01)

Tioga County Sports Report
TIOGA CENTER — SVEC scored three second-half goals to pull out a 4-2 win over state-ranked Tioga in IAC girls soccer action here Tuesday night at Haggerty Field.

The win comes just six days after the Eagles dropped an 8-6 decision at home to the Tigers, who are ranked 18th in the latest Class C rankings.

“Words can’t properly express how incredibly proud I am of my girls today,” said first-year SVEC coach Michael Leljedal. “We knew going into today’s game we would be down to 10 players, and even the possibility of only having nine.

“And not for one second did the girls lose belief or desire,” noted Leljedal. “For all 80 minutes, I felt like we were the harder working team. We had to be, being down a player means everyone else has to step up and every last one of them did.

“Tonight, was a dominant showing from our defense, specifically our two CBs — Lindsey Morse and Meradyth Stouffer.

“Tioga is incredibly dangerous team going forward and we had a game plan to mitigate them as much as we could, and I would say they executed it well,” said Leljedal. “Last week, they put eight past us, so to cut that down to two while being down a player showed the girls stuck to the game plan.

“Allie Lyon and Amelia “Mimi” Morris did an incredible job working the midfield, both tracking back and getting forward,” he added. “And Kaitlyn Coppage worked tirelessly up top to put pressure on their defense. In the end our attitude and drive won this game, and I’m beyond happy with this win.”

Allie Lyon scored about 10 1/2 minutes into the game to give SVEC a 1-0 lead, but Tioga senior Erica Bradley, off a feed from 8th-grader Grace Howey, tied the game midway through the half.

Howey, off an assist from Bradley, gave Tioga a 2-1 lead with 4:03 remaining in the half.

Kaitlyn Coppage scored SVEC’s next goal with 25:35 remaining in the contest to tie the game at 2-2, and Lyon converted a penalty kick with 23:54 remaining to give the Eagles the lead for good.

Lyon, off a feed from Coppage, out the game on ice with 2:48 remaining in the game to provide the final margin.

Tioga had a 16-14 edge in shots-on-goal, and a 5-1 advantage in corner kicks.

Nicole Poli recorded 10 saves in net for the Eagles, while Taliah Speer had 11 saves for the Tigers.

SVEC, now 4-3-1, returns to action Thursday at state-ranked Watkins Glen.

————————

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MIRANDA SZYMANSKI.

Print Friendly Version