Cavaliers hold on to defeat Mustangs

COLDWATER - Coldwater's Amanda Kahlig stopped and popped from 12 yards out. Her shot sailed over the head of Allen East goalie Kassidy Reneau and into the net to put her team in front 2-1.

The Cavs held on from there.

Grace Bruns was a wall in net all evening and Maura Hoying scored two goals, including the icing-on-the-cake goal with 6:52 remaining, as Coldwater defeated Allen East 3-1 in Western Ohio Soccer League play Monday at Cavalier Stadium.

Scott Brinkman's team improved to 5-4-2 overall and 4-2-0 in WOSL play.

The teams were locked at 1-apiece entering intermission. Hoying kicked off the scoring with a goal 11 minutes into action. Jade Meyer scored the equalizer with 8:35 left in the half.

The Cavs controlled most of the action early in the second half and eventually, Kahlig connected for the go-ahead goal with 25:09 remaining. Hoying launched a shot from deep to finish off the Mustangs with time winding down.

"We talked about at halftime playing a little bit faster in the second half, and I thought we picked up the pace a little bit," Brinkman said. "I thought our center midfielders Allison May, Amanda Kahlig and Lexi Depweg did a good job of winning the balls in the middle, and I thought that set things up. For the first 15 minutes of the second half, we played the whole game at our end. That was good for us. It helped us get some confidence. It keeps us on our toes.

"The most important goal is the third goal in a game that's tied 1-1," he added. "I think you could kind of see our confidence go up when we got that goal. Certainly that last goal that Maura had was the icing on the cake."

Allen East generated several scoring opportunities in the final 30 minutes as Meyer and Leah Casey used their speed to get past the Coldwater back line. Each time, though, Allen East was off the mark or turned away by Bruns, who finished with 11 saves.

"They had some great breakaways," Brinkman said. "I give them a lot of credit. The Jade Meyer girl is something else. She's just so difficult to defend, and we talked about that before the game. We had to know where Jade was because she'll beat us. Fortunately, we did a good enough job with her not to let her beat us. Leah Casey is the same way. She had some breakaways. I thought Grace Bruns, our goalkeeper, was huge on some of those breakaways."

Coldwater returns to the field on Saturday, hosting Delphos Jefferson for a 2 p.m. contest at Cavalier Stadium.