POLAND – Traip Academy threw everything but the kitchen sink at Poland on Monday afternoon in the teams’ WMC soccer showdown. Even if they had thrown it at the Knights’ net, goalkeeper Paige Piper and freshman fullback Sophie Geelhoed would likely have stopped it.

Piper turned aside 10 Rangers’ shots, Geelhoed diverted several more as the team’s primary sweeper, and the Knights scored two opportunistic goals with less than 10 minutes to play to earn a 2-0 victory over Traip.

“We’ve been working a lot on weak-side support, and that helped out a lot today,” said Geelhoed.

“We were on the ropes, we weathered the storm and we had a good counterattack later on,” said first-year Poland coach Aaron Rand.

Poland won its second game of the season, which eclipses the team’s total from the previous two seasons combined. Last year, the Knights won once, following a winless effort in 2004.

“They’re working hard,” said Rand. “We’re throwing a lot at them right now tactically and otherwise, and they’ve accepted the challenge, and they want to get better.”

The teams grappled to a scoreless tie after the first half as both teams struggled to find the finish on some premium scoring opportunities.

Traip (0-3-1) flipped the switch at the half, though, and came out firing. The Rangers launched eight shots toward the Poland net and kept possession of the ball in the Poland end for nearly 20 of the first 22 minutes of the second half.

“We kept our composure, we kept our game plan,” said Traip coach John Pelletier. “It’s like a bull running at you, you can only do so much. We were hoping they’d get tired, which they did, but if you can’t put the ball in the back of the net, you lose.”

After weathering the storm, the Knights’ Courtney Gray sent what appeared to be a harmless ball up the middle toward the Rangers’ net. The keeper misplayed the ball, though, hesitating enough to allow Danielle Belanger access to it at the top of the box.

“The ball got up there and the goalie was trotting out,” said Belanger. “She didn’t see me because there were two other players in the way, and I just got a toe on it. She went down and I went around and just kicked it lightly at the net. It just rolled in.”

The ball squeezed in, just inside the near right post. It was the team’s first shot on net in the second half, and just 8:11 remained in the game.

Taylor Girouard capped the Knights’ victory minutes later when she emerged from a pile of players less than 10 yards from the net and fired the ball past the befuddled defense.