Galesburg 4, Pekin 1

Soccer setback
PEKIN -- Pekin dropped its second girls' soccer match in a row with a 4-1 non-conference loss Thursday to Galesburg at Coal Miners Park.
Sade Akpore scored the first of two goals 13 minutes into the contest off a pass from her sister, Kiara Akpore. Sade made the score 2-0 about 10 minutes later.
Pekin coach Edgar Sandoval said he intentionally had his defense play Kiara very closely and her sister took advantage of it.
"They're both very strong and very quick," he said. "But, I didn't think we could afford to focus equal attention on both of them."
The game was very physical. Pekin (3-4) committed 10 fouls and Galesburg (3-3) seven.
Pekin's backup goalkeeper Bethany Smith went face first in to the right goal post when Galesburg's Cathy Cecil scored to make it 3-0. Sandoval said Smith had to be helped from the field. He added that in the second half, Dragon forwards Sam Berry and Aimee St. Andre knocked heads, sending Berry to the hospital.
"In looks like both girls will be all right, but your heart just drops when you see these things happen," Sandoval said.
Pekin's lone goal was scored by St. Andre on breakaway with about 11 minutes to play.

Tough loss tonight. Not because the girls played poorly. Galesburg just finished better. We had two breakaways where each time, the girl with the ball got within a few yards of the goal, but just held it a split second too long and we were unable to convert a PK.

They out shot us by 4, but we had more corner kicks, so this loss wasn't like losing to Notre Dame or Richwoods.

I was hopeful of a closer game though, but it just shows we're not able to separate from the second tier of local girls soccer teams. Galesburg beat us, we beat Washington, Washington beat Galesburg, Geneseo beat Washington, Galesburg beat Geneseo.

Still I was more pleased with the effort tonight than I was in one of our three wins.

As for the injuries, I felt horrible when I saw our two girls go down. Bethany, especially as the exact same thing happened her sophomore year and she was hurt pretty bad.