Oilers, Panthers play to a 2-2 draw

Playing on back-to-back days is exhausting.

Playing three games in four days, backbreaking.

On Thursday evening both the Alma and Mt. Pleasant High School soccer programs did exactly that though as this longtime rivalry renewed itself from Horizon Park.

In the end the Oilers (2- 6-2) and Panthers (5-3-1) played to a 2-2 tie in a non-conference game that broke one way initially before breaking back the other way soon thereafter.

“Two different halves,” said Alma Coach Nicko’ Neill. “We’ve struggled early in the first half all year andwe did that (Thursday). We came out flat and weren’t playing with confidence. We talked about it at halftime and we came out aggressive.”

Trailing 2- 0 at the half Alma turned in a phenomenal secondhalf showing as the Panthers dominated the play and kept constant pressure on the oilers. Additionally, after a nice first half where the weather was partially sunny, the second 40-minute session was filled with wind and rain and generally miserable playing conditions.

Yet, with the wind at their backs, the Panthers were in fine form. Fiveminutes into the second stanza Connor Lemerand belted in a shot from the top of the box to make it 2-1. After a couple great saves by Mt. Pleasant’s blake Brown the Panthers tied it at the 31:08 mark as Cole Lemerand scored on a penalty kick after a hand-ball in the box.

“That was tough, the weather in the second half kind of balanced the scales,” said Oiler coach Shane Boyle, who used to be the head coach at Alma in the early-2000s. “We had them for one half, then they came back at us with the wind and the rain. We controlled early, they controlled late.”

The Oilers got on the board less than five minutes into the game when Brennan Mahokey let a shot go from 25-yards out towards the far-right post. The shot was heading wide when Izzy Rollins redirected it with a header just inside the post for a 1- 0 lead.

With 26:27 left in the first half Zach Haggart- Madison pushed the lead up to 2- 0 with a low-liner that found the back of the net.

JAMES TRAYNOR — THE MORNING SUN Mt. Pleasant and Alma both entered Thursday’s game looking to notch a second-straightwin after winningwednesday. That didn’t happen though as the game ended in a 2-2tie.