Lawrence, Hamilton share spoils in draw

LAWRENCE — Both teams showed up thinking they had a chance to win, and both teams had their chances to win over the course of the game. But neither one did. Coming in at 1-7, Lawrence High’s girls’ soccer team played to a 1-1 tie with Hamilton, which was 1-9 entering play.

“Anything’s better than a loss,” was the way Hamilton’s Taylor Nelson looked at it after scoring the game-tying goal with 22:44 left to play.

Each team could say the same thing, but Lawrence had plenty of chances in the two overtimes that it could not turn into gamewinning gold.

“I thought we had a lot of opportunities that we didn’t capitalize on,” first-year coach Emily Palombo said. “That’s unfortunate, that’s why we tied. We need to work on finishing our chances we get.

“I’m proud of the way they played. They didn’t give up or let down. We’ve been working on making sure that we stay in the game the whole time and not have any letdowns. We had the one, but we came back and had the energy. I was happy about that.”

Neither team scored in the first half although Lawrence had a tremendous opportunity early when Sabrina Pascarella crossed to Kelsey Holt, whose shot from close range was saved nicely by goalie Lashay Ross. There were a few more threats by both sides but the half ended scoreless.

In the sixth minute of the second half, Lawrence scored a good looking goal when Pascarella did some nice work to dribble through several defenders and come in from the left side, before crossing to Maeve Humphreys, who tapped it in for the goal.

Hamilton had an equally pretty score to tie it up when Danielle Schneck sent a perfect cross in front to Nelson, who one-touched it in with her left foot.

In the overtime, Lawrence held an 8-4 shot advantage, but Hamilton might have had the best opportunity when Sam Santiago took a shot on an open net that midfielder Virginia Cummings blocked from going in.

The last chance for either team came when Pascarella’s cross into the box with 20 seconds left bounced around but was finally cleared from danger by Hamilton, which was playing its second straight overtime game and third in five matches.

“We fought hard,” coach Anthony Tessein said. “It’s nice to not give up a goal like we have the last couple times in overtime, but the last few games I thought we were good enough to win. It’s disappointing that after three overtime games we end up 0-2-1.”

Palombo, who nearly lost assistant coach Christy Fink when a ball going out of bounds blasted her in the stomach, can sympathize with Tessein’s frustration.

“We needed a win, but I’m happy we didn’t lose,” she said. “We just didn’t capitalize on the opportunities we had, we have to talk about that.” Tessein’s concerns are similar. “We’re not getting shots off in the final third,” he said. “We’re creating some nice stuff, but the last touch towards goal is just not there.”

It’s basically the same problem for both teams, which meant they still had the same amount of wins coming out of the game as they had going in.