DELAWARE – Big Walnut girls soccer coach Chris Allen was happy to leave Olentangy Berlin with a 2-1 victory Thursday night.
But, he didn’t necessarily feel elated with the way his team arrived at the decision.
All three goals in the game were own goals.
The Golden Eagles were the beneficiary of two in the second half to snag the victory after trailing at the break.
“In games like these — doing well enough to get the win — you can’t really ask for more,” Allen said. “Whether it’s somebody hitting it in with their stomach … it’s better than the chances that we miss. Sometimes you’ve gotta take those (outcomes) and just run with it.”
Berlin’s Olivia Neidhardt centered to Roisin Kennedy, who sent a shot high. After a couple of odd bounces, the ball crossed the goal line to give the Bears a 1-0 lead with 15:09 left in the first half.
BW goalkeeper Payton Carter leapt and got a hand on it and the ball ricocheted off the cross bar and bounced down. She had a chance at snagging it on a bounce, but the ball got away and crossed the line.
“(Berlin) played well in the first half and that caused a lot of pressure for us,” Allen said. “That’s pretty much what we talked about at halftime. We’ve just gotta protect the ball more and that’ll help us to create chances because we’re a better team when we have the ball.”
BW was able to control possession in the second half.
It paid off when Avery Maxeiner centered a ball from the left to Ella Froelich through traffic that ended up in the back of the net to tie the game 1-1 with 31:35 remaining.
The Eagles (5-3-3) took the lead when Berlin goalie McKinley Hoffmann dove to snag an Avery Schone lead pass. Estella Traux emerged from the scrum with the ball and sent a shot that was deflected in by a Berlin defender’s head to give the Eagles the lead with 24:11 remaining.
“I just think with the two own-goals … we just couldn’t get the momentum back after that,” Berlin coach Tara Zimmer said. “That’s just how the game played out. We couldn’t get the rhythm going from the beginning. We came out a little flat and that’s how it ended.”
Carter finished with three saves in the first half and Olivia Ramsey stopped for shots in the second for BW.
Hoffmann finished with nine saves for the Bears (8-5), who had a four-game winning streak snapped.
“We play again Saturday, so we’ve just gotta move on,” Zimmer said. “We just go game by game. Tomorrow we have practice and then Saturday we play again. I think (we’ll) be fine.”
Berlin is back in action Saturday at 11 a.m. against Bishop Watterson in non-league play. BW is off until Wednesday until it hosts a non-league game against Kenton, which kicks off at 7 p.m.
