AUBURN — Four goals, two ties, one lead change and a seemingly endless number of fouls.

All that, but no winner. 

Edward Little girls’ soccer scored two second-half goals less than five minutes apart, but surrendered a late marker as the Red Eddies played Mt. Ararat to a 2-2 draw Tuesday in a KVAC match. 

The tie snapped Edward Little’s three-game winning streak to open the season, though the Red Eddies remain unblemished in the loss column. For Mt. Ararat, the draw halts a two-game skid. 

“Two-and-two against a team like this I’ll take any day,” Edward Little coach Craig Latuscha said. “They’re a decent team. I’m hoping everybody can believe and see we’re starting to become a better team. I think we’re a team to reckon with. I really do. My girls may not always have the most talent, but they have a lot of heart and they work hard.”

The Eagles (2-2-1) drew first blood in a physical contest. Torri Pelletier gave Mt. Ararat a 1-0 lead in the 18th minute with a strike from the top of the box that beat Edward Little goalkeeper Mariah Vaillancourt far post. Pelletier’s goal was the lone marker in the first half. 

The Red Eddies (3-0-1) found their scoring touch 10 minutes into the second half as Morgan Knowlton crashed the net off a corner kick. Amidst a scrum of players in front of the net, Knowlton managed to squeeze a shot past traffic and just across the goal line to tie the game in the 48th minute. 

“I just made sure to crash the net,” Knowlton said. “We talk about that all day in practice. I just had to make sure to get there.” 

A hustle play from one of Edward Little’s youngest players put the Red Eddies in front for the first time less than five minutes after Knowlton put them on the board. With the ball served into the box off the foot of Makayla Norcross, younger sister and freshman Piper Norcross leaped in front of Mt. Ararat goalkeeper Kate Guerin and headed it into the net for a 2-1 lead. 

“We knew at halftime 1-0 wasn’t going to be enough against a team like this,” Mt. Ararat coach Sam Chard said. “They’re big, they’re physical. On a small field, anything can happen.” 

Latuscha credited aggressiveness for the second-half surge.

“We won the 50-50 balls more in the second half,” he said. “In the beginning, Mt. Ararat was winning the 50-50 balls. I decided to put more pressure on their fullbacks, which helped out a little bit.”

Piper Norcross’ goal in the 52nd minute wasn’t enough as Libby Ouellette scored the equalizer with 11 minutes remaining in regulation. Ouellette tracked down a pass from Katie Labbay and fired a shot on goal that had just enough to slip past a diving Molly Murray, who replaced Vaillancourt late in the first half. 

“I just took a touch when it was in the air and I did a half volley when it was coming down,” Ouellette said. “It was a really slow shot. I didn’t expect it to go in at all. I think it easily could have been saved, but it was lucky to just dribble in.”

The Eagles finished with an 11-8 advantage in shots on goal. All but one of Edward Little’s shots on goal came in the second half or overtime. 

The Red Eddies had seven corner kicks to Mt. Ararat’s three. 

mkraft@sunjournal.com

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