It was a tense and physical battle for the Grand Rapids Community College women’s soccer team as they took on Owens Community College and defeated them on Sept. 29., ending their losing streak.
The game started off slow for the Raiders as it seemed they were feeling out their opponent and not getting to the goal.
GRCC’s head coach Jason Hill felt that his team’s biggest issue is getting off to a slow start.
“We gotta respect the game more and come out right from the get go, come out hard, fast, that’s the way this sport is played,” Hill said. “We started off slow and we allowed our opponent into the game and that’s just something you learn as a player, that cannot happen.”
After 10 minutes the Raiders were able to score a goal off a nice assist from Leslie Luna, a midfielder from Grand Rapids, to Abby Buttermore, a forward from Cedar Springs, to take a 1-0 lead.
Owens College followed that goal a minute later to tie the game back up. For the rest of the first half, it was a defensive battle with both teams keeping each other at bay to keep the game tied going into halftime.
Going into the second half, fatigue was becoming a factor as Owens Community College had to travel three hours to play GRCC and the Raiders took advantage with a more aggressive offensive push that allowed Buttermore to score another goal off an assist from Samantha Hunting, a midfielder from Ada to make it 2-1.
Another advantage for the Raiders was the Owens Community College squad being reckless with their fouls, racking up 14 for the entire game.One player kicked Buttermore in the back resulting in a yellow card and the opposing teams coach to try and argue the call.
The Raiders were able to stay cool, calm and collected as Alexandria Ellsworth, a midfielder from Comstock Park, scored her first goal of the season with a penalty kick to put the game out of reach and to secure the victory for GRCC, 3-1.
With this victory, it puts an end to a three-game skid the Raiders were on, giving them a 6-7 record and a 4-7 conference record.
Buttermore was asked to comment on the play where she was kicked in the back.
“I feel like most teams when they can’t keep up with a team physically or technical wise they resort to their own dirty physicality to compensate,” Buttermore said. “I feel like it was a good game and I like physical games.”
Alena Amaya, a midfielder from Grand Rapids, felt that this was an important bounce-back win.
“We definitely feel amazing, you can see when we came off the field, a lot of high energy and cheers,” Amaya said. “We definitely needed it and we came back harder and better than ever.”
The Raiders play again at MacKay-Jaycees Park on Oct. 4 when they take on Jackson College at 2 p.m.
