Lady Hawks stung by pair of tough calls
If there is any credence to the whole “home field advantage” thing, then the Hiland Lady Hawks must be wondering why they left their homecoming game with Lake Center Christian toting a 2-1 loss.Hiland got up early in the first half, thanks to leading scorer Irelie Riggle, who corralled a pass from Josie Beachy and gave the Lady Hawks a 1-0 lead. However, as the two teams worked hard to traverse the muddy field, Lake Center grabbed a 2-1 lead midway through the second half, when a Tigers player lofted a perfectly placed goal past Hiland (4-7-4) goalie Lindsey Kline.
“There was nothing Linds could do on that play,” said Hiland coach Pat Miller. “She was where she needed to be, but sometimes you get beat by a perfect shot.”
However, things appeared to be looking up for the Lady Hawks with 10 minutes to play, when Riggle again took a pass from Beachy and drove home the game-tying goal, only to have it wiped away with an offside call, which was highly contested, to no avail, by the Hiland coaching staff. Moments later, Riggle chipped a shot by the Tigers goalie to apparently tie the score again, only to have the goal waved off on a phantom foul on Beachy, who vehemently denied any wrongdoing to the referees, which only fell on deaf ears.
Hiland got no more good opportunities, and the loss left Hiland’s players and coaching staff feeling disappointed, but knowing they had played well against a physical Lake Center team.
“We looked at both of the calls on tape, and neither of them were correct,” said assistant coach Doug Hochstetler, confirming what they already knew but could do nothing about. Josie never even touched the girl, she just went down on her own. It’s tough to take, but it happens.”
Miller was diplomatic in the loss, despite losing a second contest on a tough call.
“The kids did a great job today, and they stayed focused the entire game, something we haven’t done well in the past,” said Miller. “We’ve worked hard on that aspect of the game. I thought both teams played hard and played fairly well. It was good preparation for the tournament.”
Miller said that despite the sub.500 record, teams consider the Lady Hawks a dark horse in the tournament, where they are more than willing to take on the roll of spoiler to the higher seeded teams.
Hiland, the No. 7 seed, plays Philo, the #6 seed on Monday, Oct. 19, at 7:30 p.m., at Philo. Should they win that game, they would then move on to play No. 2 seeded Coshocton on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m.
“I think we’ve improved to the point that nobody really wants to play us,” said Miller. “It’s fun to be the spoiler. We’ve had a lot of tough results, and we’ve been in just about every game, so we’re quite pleased with where our program is and where this team is. We may not be where we want to be yet as a program, but we’re getting closer.”