BROOKINGS – Even though the pitch was wet and slick, it didn’t slow down the Gazelles as Yankton ran past the ‘Cats for a 4-0 Eastern South Dakota Conference win on Tuesday night at Fishback Soccer Park.
“Speed is tough to match up with when we don’t have it, especially in the back line,” said BHS head coach Kelli Herman. “When you play a team that is speedy, you either have to drop or you have to push, and we were struggling to find the difference tonight.
“Not enough (quality shots on offense) – there’s a reason that team is the No. 2 team in the state – they possess the ball very well. If you watch their midfielders, they were playing through the middle, and then switching the field.
“We struggled with keeping possession tonight – we talked about that at halftime; we talked about it again after the game – moving forward, we just have to play our game and go back to the fundamentals that we were doing at the beginning of the season.”
Yankton cashed in on its first shot of the night as Jaiden Boomsma scored the first of her three goals on the evening less than two minutes into the match.
Trailing 1-0 at halftime, the ‘Cats were still in the match until Emma Christensen and Boomsma scored on back-to-back shots on goal less than a minute apart to make it 3-0 with 27:20 to play.
Boomsma picked up her hat trick with 10:45 on the clock for the final margin.
Grace Mork finished with nine saves on the night in the loss.
The Gazelles held an 18-5 edge in shots with a 13-4 advantage in shots on goal as they improved to 8-2-1 overall and 6-1 in the ESD.
Brookings, 3-6-2 and 2-4-1 in conference play, closes out the regular season with its Homecoming game against Pierre at 4 p.m. on Thursday at Fishback.
The top-seeded Lady Govs are 9-1-1 with a 3-0 loss to the Gazelles and a 1-1 draw against Aberdeen Central.
Troy Maroney/Register
The Bobcats – from left, Alexis McGuire, keeper Grace Mork, Celia Dobrenski and Carolyn Hieb – close in on the ball after a Yankton corner kick during a 4-0 Eastern South Dakota Conference loss to the Gazelles on Tuesday night at Fishback Soccer Park.
