Girls soccer: Metea Valley earns tie against Lyons Twp.
Lyons Township didn't charge admission to Tuesday night's girls soccer game against Metea Valley, but the fans would have gotten their money's worth if they had paid.
Erin Smothers scored 20 seconds into the game for the host Lions, and that was only the beginning of the fun.
Maeve Riordan, Chesney Wargo and Nicki Hernandez scored goals to give Metea Valley a 2-goal lead in the second half before the host Lions rallied to forge a 3-3 tie.
"They have some good midfielders and we have some good midfielders, so the game kind of ebbed and flowed," Metea Valley coach Chris Whaley said. "They've got some speed up top, which we struggled with tonight.
"But it's more about what the girls take out of it and that's just that it's a good nonconference opponent. They have a lot of really good, strong, fast players and I think our girls kind of realize now where their game needs to get better."
The Mustangs (1-0-1) were fortunate not to be in a deeper hole in the first half. Goalkeeper Amy Ahern made 5 of her 8 saves before halftime, including several on partial breakaways, to keep her team in it.
Then Riordan changed the complexion of the game when she beat a defender into the box and fired a shot that hit the left post and caromed off the back of Lyons goalkeeper Claire Purcell and in with 6.2 seconds left in the half.
"I was trying to do something different because I've been going inside a lot," Riordan said. "So I tried to take that touch behind me to go outside the defender and then I just used my speed to get around her and give myself the angle.
"I feel that first goal that they scored on us caught us off guard, but we really picked up our mentality after my first goal."
The Mustangs began the second half the same way they ended the first, attacking with gusto. Wargo took a pass from Jade Eriksen-Russo and blasted a 17-yard shot past Purcell to give Metea a 2-1 lead just 95 seconds after halftime.
Hernandez followed with a steal and scored on a breakaway six minutes later to make it 3-1 and the Mustangs appeared to be in control.
But the Lions (1-0-1), who have scored 8 goals so far, roared back and took just six minutes to tie the game. Bella Lestina scored on a short shot with 28:25 remaining and then Mary Devine pounced on a loose ball in front to tie the game at the 25:09 mark.
The game continued at a frenetic pace the rest of the way. Metea had the better chances, but Kelly Crowe and Eriksen-Russo saw shots go barely over the crossbar.
"I think we really want to take this as a learning experience and we want to focus on our defending," Wargo said. "But we're definitely proud of the fact that we came back and we took control of the game a little bit, so we're going to take that as a small victory."