Marquette Redettes pleased to get road soccer tie
KINGSFORD — The Marquette girls were pleased with an Upper Peninsula Soccer Conference tie on the road Tuesday at Commemorative Field.
Kingsford had a different perspective.
“Can I say it was a good team tie?” Flivvers coach Jon Lorenzoni said with a smile. “I’m not unhappy about it.”
While the Flivvers (4-0-1, 1-0-1) would have preferred the girls soccer victory, the Redettes (1-0-1) came away satisfied.
“You always want to win,” said Marquette coach Jeff Collins. “But when you’re in a game like this and they give everything they have, you have to be happy especially coming away (from home) with a point in our brand-new conference.”
Marquette’s Sierra Carlson, with help from Deni Peterson, slipped past the home team’s defense in the final two minutes of the first half for a 1-0 advantage.
Kingsford fired back three minutes into the second half as swimming and distance running standout Peyton Johnson scored to even the match.
Goalies Abi Person of Kingsford and Caitlin Palomaki of Marquette put up a wall for more than 37 minutes of the second half and two five-minute overtime periods.
“That was as intense as any soccer game that I’ve been involved in,” Lorenzoni said. “Everybody that stepped on the field gave their all.
“They’re a rock-solid team. They’re Marquette and we’ve struggled to have success against them in the past.”
Lorenzoni thought Marquette dominated play early in the match.
“We were a step slow but about the 15-minute mark we started playing even and getting some chances,” he said. “We picked it up a little bit.”
Kingsford threatened several times in the second half and Person made three fine saves by diving at the feet of Marquette attackers.
Collins summed up the match as “just back and forth, and very physical.”
“They had momentum awhile and we had momentum awhile,” Collins said. “There were two great saves, one on each side. Any bounce could have made a difference.”
Marquette defeated Iron Mountain in overtime for its league win.
“I’m very proud of my team for the way they dug down deep,” said Collins, noting three or four of his players were ill. “Now Kingsford has to travel and see us (on May 10).