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FONDA — After dropping its first two games of the season, the Fonda-Fultonville girls’ soccer team took a three-game win streak into Monday’s Western Athletic Conference match with Schoharie.
The slow start to the season wasn’t unexpected for Fonda-Fultonville, which lost several players from last year’s squad.
“We’ve got a whole new team this year,” FFCS coach Ashleigh Phillips said. “We lost 10 seniors from last year’s team and we’re learning how to play together at the varsity level.”
The learning curve had been heading in a winning direction until the Storm halted the FFCS hot streak with a 3-2 victory on Monday.
Lily Ballard, Evelyn Messner and Alaina Martin scored for Schoharie, while Martin and Olivia Borst each had an assist.
Lauren Marotta and Kam Myles scored for Fonda-Fultonville, while Rhyan Lewis had an assist.
With a junior varsity football game taking place on Fonda-Fultonville’s turf field, the game was played on the grass field in front of the elementary school.
Both sides had their issues finding their footing on the narrow field.
“We haven’t played on grass much this season,” Phillips said. “It’s definitely an adjustment from playing on turf.”
FFCS found its way onto the scoreboard first when Marotta scored on a corner kick that was deflected in off the Schoharie keeper to make it 1-0 with 18:19 remaining in the first half.
The Storm pulled even 10 minutes later when Ballard scored on a shot that went in off the Fonda-Fultonville netminder to make it 1-1 with 8:11 left in the opening half.
The game headed into the half tied as FFCS finished the first half with a 6-3 advantage in shots.
After the break, Schoharie came out firing, outshooting Fonda-Fultonville 7-4 over the final 40 minutes.
“The field conditions didn’t help,” Schoharie co-coach Tammy Drinon said. “Once we figured out that we had to shoot the ball from outside, we had some nice opportunities.”
The Storm took their first lead just 2:21 into the second half when Messner scored on an assist from Martin to make it 2-1.
Schoharie pushed its advantage to 3-1 with 25:38 remaining in the game when Martin scored from long range on an assist from Borst.
Fonda-Fultonville pulled to within a goal in the final minute when Myles scored on an assist from Lewis to make it 3-2 before Schoharie was able to hold on for the victory,
“We didn’t give up,” Phillips said. “We played hard right to the end. If we had another five minutes, we might have gotten another one.”
Lily Courtright made two saves for Schoharie, while Grace Furnare finished with three saves for Fonda-Fultonville.
Both teams were playing their first of three league games this week.
“We’ve got quite the season ahead of us,” Phillips said. “We’re playing three games a week every week from here on out.”
Schoharie (4-1-1 overall, 2-1 WAC) is scheduled to host Mayfield on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.
“That’s going to be a tough game,” Drinon said. “It’s going to be a tough week because we’ve got three games this week.”
FFCS (3-3, 2-2 WAC) is slated to travel to Berne-Knox-Westerlo on Wednesday for a 4:30 p.m. contest.
