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Bald Eagle girls fall to Central, as Long hat trick gives team issues

By KENNY VARNER 3 min read

WINGATE – After a hard-fought season opener against Bishop Guilfoyle, the Bald Eagle Area girls soccer team was back on the field Thursday as they played host to Central.

The Dragons played the spoiler role on the evening. Central would score three first half goals and one in the second to get by a very young Bald Eagle team. In the end, the Dragons would shut out the Eagles, 4-0, in Laurel Highlands action.

"We played a little bit better on Tuesday, and I would have liked to have seen that kind of aggression, that kind of challenge for the ball as we came out tonight," said Bald Eagle head coach Jared Moore. "I didn’t quite see enough of that, and I think it cost us. Made some mistakes, and they made us pay for it."

The Dragons’ Mya Long gave the Eagles fits all night, finishing with goals and capturing the hat trick.

Early on, the Eagles came out very aggressive and were holding their own. But with only seven minutes into the contest, the skies thundered, the lightning blazed across the sky, and that caused almost an hour delay as both teams were pushed back to the locker rooms.

When the session resumed, the Dragons slowly started to push the ball and the momentum down to the Eagles' side of the field.

After holding things steady on defense for the first 15 minutes, the Eagles gave up their first goal of the ball game. Mya Long got free from her defender and blasted the game's first goal, giving her team a 1-0 lead.

Both defenses took the game over and the two teams could not hold any sustainable drives.

But as the game clock ticked under ten minutes, Long found the goal again as she was able to squeeze one past the goalie, upping the lead to 2-0.

Long would not be done yet as she blasted a 10-yard blast with just 5:40 left in the stanza, taking the game into intermission with Bald Eagle trailing 3-0.

"I thought we connected our passes a little bit better in the second half. It was still not our best," said Moore. "Still not the best that I’ve seen."

Bald Eagle stepped up their game in the second half, pushing the ball numerous times around the Central goal, but to no avail. The Dragons defense swarmed to the when needed. 

As the game wore down, Central cashed one more in to send the Eagles to a 4-0 win. Marah Diehl hit an unassisted goal at 10:34.

Bald Eagle Area will be back in action Tuesday as they go on the road to Westmont Hilltop.

Central 4, Bald Eagle Area 0

First half

CEN – Mya Long (unassisted), 22:21. CEN – Long (unassisted), 7:58. CEN – Long (unassisted), 5:40

Second half

CEN – Marah Diehl (unassisted), 10:34.

Shots on goal: CEN – 13 , BEA – 8.

Corners: CEN – 2, BEA – 1.

Saves: Cami Walker (BEA) 6, Kailyn Gahagan (CEN) 3.

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