Lightning struck many times before the Waynesville High School soccer team’s match with Nixa Friday night. But the Nixa Eagles only needed one strike— Kelsey Heist scored on a rebound late in the first half to lead Nixa to a 1-0 win over Waynesville.
The match was delayed by more than an hour due to thunder and lightning in the area, and when it finally got under way at around 6:15 p.m. neither team had an apparent upper hand.
Both teams had scoring chances aplenty during the first half, but Heist took advantage of a Lady Tiger defensive lapse with 9:10 left.
After Heist took a good a shot on the Waynesville net, Tiger keeper Alicia Cook made a nice diving save but couldn’t hang on to the ball due to the wet conditions.
With no defenders in the area and Cook on the ground to the left of the goal, Heist got the rebound and punched it in for the easy score.
“Alicia came out and she made a great stop,” WHS head coach Mike Gow said. “We’ve worked on having our defenders come back to help in those situations but we didnt get that done tonight. Just that one error that we make was the game.”
Just a single mistake. That’s been the running theme for the Tigers this season.
“It’s one of those things that we talk about,” Gow said. “We make one crucial mistake every game that ends up being the difference. But I thought the girls overall did a heck of a job.”
Nixa improves to 12-4 on the season; their only four losses have been to Ozark Conference teams.
The Tigers’ record drops to 4-9 with the loss.
After a home date with West Plains Tuesday, they’ll walk the gauntlet to close out the season: at home against Springfield Parkview, then road contests with Jefferson City, Springfield Glendale and Springfield Catholic.
