Top-ranked Gretna East played its closest match to date against Class B competition Monday night.
Hosting coach Nick Hall's Blair girls soccer team, the Griffins needed late heroics in the goalkeeper's box to win the matchup of unbeatens, 4-3.
The loss was the No. 5 Bears' first after a 9-0 start to the season.
“I knew it was going to come down to little things,” said Hall, who was bundled-up for the matchup dictated by strong gusts of cold wind across East's turf pitch. “I knew they were good enough to compete with them and score on them. It was just a matter of doing the little things to win the game.”
BHS led first during the regular season matchup, but the Griffins ultimately scored the game-winner with 1:53 left in regulation.
“Credit to them,” Hall said. “They had one more better than us.”
It was the Bears, though, who scored first. In the 25th minute, freshman Cadence Field scored the 22nd goal of her breakout season into the wind. The forward sent the ball from the right side to the left corner of the net, crossing East keeper Maddie Schaffert's face.
The goal was the only one scored during the first half even as BHS goalkeeper Brooklyn Schroeter was the busiest she'd been all season. While the Griffins struggled to get shots up close due to the wind carrying their through passes past the goal line, they took many from distance.
Time-after-time, Schroeter swallowed them up between two mitts.
“She was definitely tested and she answered the call,” Hall said. “Kept us in it.”
Altogether, the first-year starter — thrust into the varsity role with returning keeper Regan Blattert's preseason injury — finished the match with 22 saves. It was two more than she'd needed to post seven shutouts during the Bears' 9-0 start.
“(Brooklyn) was great,” Hall said. “Can't commend her enough. She did a good job.”
Gretna East, which ended Class A No. 1 Lincoln Southwest's unbeaten start April 7, too, did score early during the second half, though. Senior Sonora DeFini notched the first of her three goals during the 42nd minute before her second gave the Griffins a 2-1 lead in the 54th.
Field's free kick from just outside of the penalty area in the 63rd just missed high, but Blair senior Brynn Ray's equalizing penalty kick with 14:58 left in the match didn't. The Minnesota State recruit found the back of the net on a shot to the top right-hand corner past Schaffert, who couldn't reach it.
“She just changes the game when she gets the ball at her foot,” Hall said of Ray, who has 16 goals this season. “When she gets it down there, she's deadly with that foot — that right foot.”
Two minutes after tying the game at 2-all, the senior gave the Bears their second lead of the road game. The forward, wearing No. 11, struck the ball from about 30 yards out and scored again for a 3-2 advantage.
The lead only lasted 3:36, though, as East's Kendall Dobberstein tied the back-and-forth, physical match again. The teams played even soccer for more than 7 minutes from there before DeFini headed in the game winner on a crossing pass cutting through the wind.
Hall said he wished his Bears had taken more chances against the top team in the state during the second half. Instead, he felt BHS played more defensively as the Griffins battled back into the match.
Even so, the loss revealed a lot about the Bears. With only one win against top-10 competition during their unbeaten start, they played Gretna East within one goal on a windy Monday night.
“I told them at the beginning, 'We don't have to win this game,'” Hall said. “'It'd be nice, but we don't have to.'”
Instead, the matchup with the Omaha World-Herald's all-class No. 1 team was a stiff test for the young Bears, who's regular rotation is filled with freshmen and sophomores alongside Ray, senior Blythe Knight and junior Claire Anderson.
“We just had to find out where we're at and I think we did,” Hall said.
Now, the coach wants BHS to get back to winning. It was to host No. 7 Bennington on Thursday and next competes during the Eastern Midlands Conference Tournament next week.
BHS SOCCER LINE SCORE
Monday
No. 1 Gretna East 4, No. 5 Blair 3
BHS (9-1) 1 2 — 3
GE (9-0) 0 4 — 4
Goals: BHS — Brynn Ray 2, Cadence Field 1. GE — Sonora DeFini 3, Kendall Dobberstein 1. Winning goalkeeper: Maddie Schaffert.
