ELKTON — In a closely contested defensive battle in which goals were hard to come by, Tri-State and Tome found themselves tied in the waning minutes of regulation during Tuesday’s matchup between the MIL rivals.
With just six minutes remaining on the clock, that changed when Tri-State’s Hayden Thomas found the back of the net to lift the Crusaders to a 2-1 victory. The win allowed Tri-State to clinch the top seed in the upcoming MIL playoffs. Tri-State head coach Michael Cox praised his team for their resilience to pull through and get the win despite being held scoreless by Tome in the first half.
“This was a big game that meant a lot to our team,” Cox said. “For us to have a slower half in the beginning and then find our way in the second, I think showed that we weren’t really afraid of the moment and we all stepped up and started to play for each other.”
Thomas scored both of Tri-State’s goals, the first coming at the 14-minute mark of the second half that tied the game at one a piece. Etta Harris and Julia Slagle each added an assist, while goalie Katie Nussle had eight saves defensively.
With the playoffs around the corner, Cox feels that there is a lot that his team can take away from Tuesday’s game as they prepare to chase an MIL title.
“If we have a slow start and we’re on our heels, we might dig ourselves a hole that we can’t get out of,” Cox said. “That kind of put a little urgency under us and let us know that we need to make sure that we’re ready as a team to perform in the playoffs and play our best version of soccer.”
On the other side, Tome head coach Pete Morgante was pleased with his team’s performance despite coming up just short. With a very young roster full of underclassmen, Morgante feels that this season’s success could be a preview of what is to come for the Titans’ future.
“I feel really good,” Morgante said. “We’re a young team with 50% of our starters being eighth and ninth graders, but we’ve improved game by game and we know that we have a great future.”
Tome opened the scoring at the 16:44-mark of the first half when Annika Vredenburg scored on a corner kick with an assist from Natalie Slezak. Tome goalie Grace Bradfield finished with 10 saves.
Tome will enter the MIL playoffs as the two seed. With a potential championship rematch possible, Morgante feels his young squad has what it takes to compete with their MIL rivals after playing the Crusaders close in both meetings. Tome has only lost twice this season, with both of its losses coming against Tri-State.
“We know that we can hang with them,” Morgante said. “We expect to play them again.”
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