Game 13 - East Peoria

The Pekin girls soccer team tied East Peoria 2-2 on Saturday. The Dragons got the scoring started just six minutes into the game. Aimee St. Andre took a solid pass from Breanna Zimmerman to put Pekin up 1-0. The two teams battled back and forth until East Peoria got on the board with five minutes left in the first half. Bethany Bozarth took a pass on the left side from Kelsea Bowe and placed the ball just inside the right post. Less than two minutes later, the Red Raiders struck again, this time it was freshman Maya Strong with the unassisted score. “The last five minutes of each half has been a problem for us. It was the difference against Woodruff, Geneseo and now East Peoria. We’re 0-1-2 in those games, but the fans that have been there have seen how we could just as easily be 2-0-1. We just need to keep our intensity up for entire halves.” The Dragons came out strong in the second half as St. Andre scored the equalizer nine minutes in. Pekin had twice as many shots as East Peoria in second half. With less than 10 minutes to go, the Dragons’ Tory Udry blasted a shot that hit the crossbar. The Pekin faithful erupted a split second later when Breanna Zimmerman put back the rebound, but a late whistle and offsides call nullified the go-ahead score. “I had a good conversation with the refs after the game. It was their opinion that Bree was off when the shot was taken and they just waited to make sure they made the right call. I still disagreed and I know the fans and players were pretty upset about the timing of the call, but we can’t let that be the difference in the game. The bottom line is that we had plenty of chances before that and we can’t put ourselves in a position where a ref’s judgment call decides the outcome.” The Dragons are 3-7-3 on the season. Their next game is Monday at 4:30 when they host Peoria Christian in a non-conference matchup.