Avery Baker
In Columbus North’s lengthy shutout streak, the Bull Dogs have had games where they’ve controlled play from start to finish, and they’ve had some games where the defense and goalkeeping has needed to come up big.
Wednesday night against Lawrence North featured both of those situations. After Columbus North dominated possession in the first half, the Wildcats created some scoring opportunities in the second half.
In the end, however, the result was another shutout for the Bull Dogs — their 10th in a row — with a 1-0 girls soccer victory.
“Our defense is doing amazing,” sophomore forward Avery Baker said. “I’m so proud of all of them. It’s a whole team effort. It’s not just one person. It’s the goalie, it’s the defense. It starts in the midfield and forward. We’re just working well together. We’re just keeping up the pressure, and it’s paying off.”
Baker scored the lone goal on Wednesday. She connected on a free kick from just outside the box in the 38th minute.
“The goalie was still setting up the wall, so she was still at the near post, and I was like, ‘I’m just going to hit it,’” Baker said. “So I just hit it back post. It was a pretty amazing feeling, and I’m really glad that I got that opportunity to take that hit.”
Columbus North (9-1-1) had to withstand a couple Lawrence North opportunities in the second half. The first came in the 48th minute when a player was taken down just to the left of the goal. Wildcat goalkeeper Julia Turow came up to take the penalty kick, but sailed it over the crossbar.
Lawrence North had a couple other opportunities, but the Bull Dogs turned them away to allow their shutout streak to reach double digits.
The Wildcats (6-4-2) came in having scored 45 goals in 11 games.
“Lawrence North is an excellent team,” Columbus North coach David Young said. “They have a lot of speed. They play with a lot of intensity, and we knew that coming into it. It was just about sustaining that pressure that they brought, especially in the second half. Whenever they went down 1-0, we knew that they were going to bring everybody, and they did.”
The Bull Dogs finished with a 13-5 shot advantage, putting eight shots on goal to two for the Wildcats. Danika Hoehn recorded two saves.
All but one of Lawrence North’s shots came in the second half.
“I felt like the second half, our tempo dropped a little bit,” Young said. “I think it was because Lawrence North maybe brought the intensity because they knew they needed the one goal. I thought our girls handled the pressure well, and the last five minutes, kind of shut the door.”
