With four minutes to play in Saturday’s matchup with visiting Apollo, the Hopkinsville girls’ soccer team appeared headed for its fifth shutout loss of the season.
However, Hoptown’s Laney Wilson had other ideas, running onto a deflection and finding the back of the net to salvage a 1-1 draw with the E-gals.
The Lady Tigers dominated possession over the first thirty minutes but couldn’t find the opening goal. Grace Cansler came close twice, having her shot saved from a tight angle with twelve minutes left in the half and firing just wide a short time later.
Apollo began to keep more of the ball as the half wound down, which continued into the second forty minutes. The E-gals’ pressure paid off in the 48th minute when Alana Rone took a pass from Jolie Foster and got behind the Hoptown defense to score the opening goal.
Goalkeeper Taylor Joachim had a pair of excellent saves to keep the Lady Tigers within striking distance, and Hoptown began to create scoring chances as the final ten minutes ticked down.
Hopkinsville’s fortunes changed when Wilson pounced on a loose ball and went in 1v1 with the Apollo keeper. She calmly rolled her shot inside the near post to notch her team-leading fourth goal of the season.
Joachim made nine saves in goal for the Lady Tigers. On the other end, Apollo’s JoHannah Hutchison returned after a first-half injury to stop five Hoptown shots.
Hopkinsville moves to 1-4-1 ahead of an 8th-District matchup at Fort Campbell on Tuesday.
