PITSBURG – One of the better rivalries the Cross County Conference has to offer in girls soccer was on display late Tuesday afternoon as the Lady Jets of Franklin Monroe played host to the Newton Lady Indians.
This year’s neighborhood get-together was won by Newton, 3-1.
As the defenses dominated the early going, Newton began to make some inroads toward the Lady Jet goal until around 13 minutes remained in the first half when the Lady Indians broke into the scoring column, a lead they would maintain until the intermission.
“We got beat to the ball in the first half,” Lady Jet coach Scott Howell said. “We had an eight-to-10-minute stretch in the second half that we played better. We’ll learn from it.”
The second half started out just as the first with Newton ruling play, but FM was beginning to come together. The Jets were starting to look sharper. They were winning more of the balls that were up for grabs, but they just couldn’t turn them into goals.
Newton finally broke through again with 11:55 remaining to take a two goal advantage and took a commanding three goal lead less than four minutes later on a fast break goal to go ahead 3-0.
Even though the scoreboard was against them, the Lady Jets continued to play with pride and effort. Bryanna Diceanu scored with 5.6 seconds remaining to put the Lady Jets on board.
“Just didn’t play like we can,” Howell said. “We didn’t play well, didn’t play bad, didn’t play well … tomorrow’s a brand new day. Stay positive and try to improve.”
Franklin Monroe resumes play at 1 p.m. Saturday at home versus Northwestern.
