WALES — The Oak Hill girls soccer team decided to celebrate Senior Day by collecting its 10th shutout of the season on Wednesday.
Senior Amara Denis found an opening in Mt. Abram’s strong defense in the first half and Emily Dillman landed a 30-yard direct kick in the net in the second as the Raiders held off the Roadrunners with a 2-0 Mountain Valley Conference victory.
Oak Hill coach Jeremy Young said his Raiders were just grinding it out with such a busy this week.
“This is our third straight game this week, with two more to go,” Young said. “Part of this is just heart and finding a way to make it happen when you are tired and had a long season.
“So we’ve had 10 straight wins now, 10 shutouts. I mean we score a lot of goals, but 10 shutouts are much more important to who we are as a team and where we have been over the past two years. I am really proud to be where we are at.”
Senior midfielder Rachel Duguay set up Denis for her goal 18 minutes into the first half to put the Raiders up 1-0.
“It was really Rachel’s ball that set that (goal) up, (with it) coming across the middle, that I could just hit it in,” Denis said.
The Raiders (10-0) knew they couldn’t rest on that lead against the Roadrunners (8-3).
“(Mt. Abram) was definitely a tough team. We have seen them before and it has been a very pushy game — one where we have to battle, and I think they definitely held us this game,” Denis said. “They hustled, but I think that we just pushed and wanted it really bad and we were able to come away with the win.”
The Roadrunners had several opportunities to score but couldn’t find a way to slip the ball into the Oak Hill net.
In the second half, Dillman took the ball to right of Mt. Abram’s net and launched a direct kick just over the goalie’s head to make it, 2-0.
From there on in, Mt. Abram continued to press despite the Raiders’ two-goal cushion.
But Mt. Abram coach Andrew Delcourt was impressed with his team’s stubborn play despite the loss.
“They played really hard,” Delcourt said of his Roadrunners. “They played from whistle to whistle, which I was glad to see. They won just about every ball they could in the air. That is huge for us. That is a staple for us.
“I thought we did well. We weren’t that dangerous offensively, but we had our chances. Like I said, as a unit, we defended well.”
Oak Hill goalie Paige Gonya got the win in net, making eight saves, while Mt. Abram netminder Haley Bate made nine saves.
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