Girls' soccer beats Mariemont 3-2

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times - it was a tale of two halves.

In their tournament game last night at CHCA against Mariemont, the girls stormed to a 3-0 lead toward the end of the first half.

Hailee Schlager put in a corner from Michelle Jolson that Nikki McKee had kept alive in front of the goal with a header.

Later Michelle drove down the right side of the field and launched a hard shot that the Mariemont keeper was able to get both hands on but only enough to slow it down.  It meandered lazily into the net.

Finally Carly Levick put up a moon shot from pretty far out and to the left side of the goal.  It took a large turf-field bounce (after yesterday's weather it would never have done so on grass) and went over the keeper's head.

So we went into halftime with a 3-0 lead and all the momentum. 

During halftime, Jim Barre explained that it's a soccer axiom that the worst lead to have is 2-0, so he was especially glad for Carly's goal.  (Apparently 1-0 isn't enough of a lead to induce you to let your guard down.  3-0 gives you enough of a lead to be somewhat complacent and get away with it.  2-0 induces you to be overconfident but doesn't give you enough cushion to get away with having done so.)

His words turned out to be prophetic.  Mariemont scored two goals in the second half before we stiffened our defense and allowed them no more.

The girls are now 12-4-3 on the season.

They advance to play Fenwick, Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at Bellbrook.

Full bracket here.

All pictures by Peter Levick.  His full gallery here.