BRADFORD – The Caledonia United girls soccer team continues to look for its first win in nearly six weeks after battling through a litany of injuries in a pair of losses to Oxbow and Paine Mountain last week.
Natalie Speer and Ainsley Smith each scored a pair of goals to power a red-hot Oxbow team to a 4-0 home win over Cal United last Tuesday. Speer wasted little time, breaking free two minutes into the match to give the home team an early 1-0 advantage. Eliska Siebenbrunner (14 saves) and the Cal United defense held strong the rest of the first half before Smith made it 2-0 fifteen minutes after the break. The junior goalkeeper has been a bright spot all season for head coach Spencer Morse’s club and once again showed her toughness, finishing the final 78 minutes of the match with a broken finger. Speer and Smith each added an insurance goal in the final minutes of the match, and Bri Marsh made 6 stops to preserve the shutout. The Lady Olympians (7-3-2) have vaulted up the Division III standings, losing just one time in their last seven matches.
Mariela Swiech scored the game winner late in the second half and assisted on another score to lead Paine Mountain to a 3-2 road win over Cal United on Friday. Jaidyn Carson fed Sarah Austin fourteen minutes into the match for her first goal of the season and a 1-0 lead for the home team. Leighton Kennedy buried a pass from Swiech for the equalizer just over ten minutes later and the two teams went into the break knotted at 1-1. Hannah Spencer broke free thirteen minutes into the second half to give Paine Mountain a one goal advantage before Cora Abetti made it 2-2 with an unassisted score in the 65-minute mark. It only took sixty seconds for Swiech to answer with the game-winner and Makenzie Walko (eight saves) was solid for the defense down the stretch. Phoebe Crocker made 15 saves in the loss for Cal United, who fell to 3-8-1. After suffering a trio of one score losses in their last five matches, Paine Mountain earned their first victory of the season.
“I was really proud of our team tonight. They are facing a lot of adversity right now with so many injuries piling up. They showed a lot of fight tonight,” said Morse.
Cal United travels to Hazen Union on Wednesday before wrapping up the regular season on Senior Night at home against Blue Mountain on Friday.
