WILMINGTON – The Wilmington High School girls soccer team walked away with a win during their nail-biting 2-1 finish against Madison at Alumni Field Thursday night in a Division II sectional tournament game.
“Not our best game, but good teams find a way to win and that’s what our girls did tonight,” said Wilmington head coach Kerry Lewis. “We’ve never won, hosted two home tournament games.”
The Lady Hurricane is now 10-5-3 on the year. In its last 11 matches, Wilmington is 8-1-2.
The lone goal scored by the Lady Mohawks ended a run of seven straight shutouts for Wilmington.
The Lady Hurricane will face Kettering Alter 7 p.m. Monday night at West Carrollton in one of four sectional title matches. Alter is ranked No. 2 among all Division II teams in Ohio, according to the Ohio Scholastic Soccer Coaches Association final poll.
The Lady Knights won the Division II state championship in 2016.
Alter defeated Clinton-Massie 7-0 on Thursday. Despite being No. 1 seed in the sectional, the tournament win for the Lady Knights ended a four-match winless streak – all ties.
Among the four straight ties was a 2-2 decision against state Division II No. 1 Indian Hill.
The Lady Knights are 11-0-5 on the year.
“Nobody will give us a fighter’s chance versus Alter,” Lewis said. “But we’ll be prepared. We’ll give them our best shot.”
On Thursday against Madison, the Hurricane got off to a fast start, keeping the Mohawks on their heels. Katlyn Jamiel had a goal during the 6th minute that was called back by a controversial offside, but it wasn’t long after that she got her vengeance with a goal bouncing off the crossbar giving Wilmington a 1-0 lead just 11 minutes into the game. Michelle Huffman was credited with an assist.
Wilmington managed to hold the lead for the remainder of the first half as well as the majority of the second. It wasn’t until the 64th minute that Tara Price from Madison was able to tie the game.
OHSAA tournament regulation state that if both teams are tied at the end of regulation, the game will go into a sudden death period divided into two 15 minute halves.
That wouldn’t be the case.
With under 6 minutes left in regulation, Katlyn Jamiel played a perfect ball to Jasmine Jamiel who buried the shot in the far left post giving Wilmington the lead.
The Mohawks tried to send the game into overtime but the stiff Hurricane defense wouldn’t allow it as WHS walked away with their second tournament win.
“We were without one of our top players tonight due to injury, striker Autumn Housh,” Lewis said. “We missed Autumn, but our younger players, freshmen Paige Bryant and sophomore Anna Borton, did a nice job stepping up. Credit to Madison for playing a great game. They wouldn’t go away and just kept fighting.”
