The Bluejay soccer team came within a single goal of tying last Tuesday’s Valley game with Wausau East, its best conference showing of the season.
The Lumberjacks broke a 1-1 tie with an unassisted goal just 2:16 after Merrill’s.
“It was a heck of a battle,” MHS coach Steph Nelson said. “They out-shot us by a little, but the second half we spent the majority of the time on our offensive half.
“It was a really exciting game. We were scoreless up until almost the 36th minute. And then we scored our first goal in conference since 2011. Sydney Harris got a one-on-one with the keeper and put a well-placed shot right around her. It was exciting.
East’s Mallory Wanserski took a 1-0 lead in the 35th minute on an assist from Gabby Charles.
Harris scored her shot in the 47th minute, but Charles matched it in the 49th minute.
“In the first half, we started out like we wanted to play defense the whole game,” Nelson said. “We weren’t really going to the ball, we were just waiting for East to do something. Once we got it in our heads that we were just as good as them we really picked it up and showed how tough we are and how much we’ve improved.”
Hudzinski made 11 saves. Merrill was out-shot 13-3 on goal and 8-3 otherwise.
The Jays got another shot at East on Tuesday, May 28th, in a game played too late for this edition.
MHS is 0-13 overall (0-11 WVC).