PETOSKEY — Well, technically the Petoskey girls’ soccer team did what they needed to do Tuesday night.
The goal of controlling their own destiny to a Big North Conference title and stay atop the league race at the moment remains fully intact after welcoming Traverse City West to Northmen Stadium.
It wasn’t a win that kept it there, but, at this point and with the lead Petoskey has over the Titans in the standings, a tie was just fine, which was ultimately the result in a 2-2 final.
“It was a pretty back and forth, entertaining high school soccer game,” Petoskey coach Zach Jonker said. “That was a good team. They hadn’t lost in the league yet and still haven’t. It was a good result against a good Division 1 team and we still control out own destiny.”
The tie moved PHS to 6-1-2 within the BNC and 11-2-2 overall, while the Titans moved to 3-0-5. It also gave the Northmen 17 league points for the lead and moved the Titans up to 14.
It was certainly a back and forth kind of game as Jonker eluded to, with Petoskey going up 1-0 at the half, before West came back to take a 2-1 advantage.
It wasn’t until 23 minutes left in the game when PHS finally tied things back up.
“To be down 2-1 and find that second goal to at least hold them to at least one point, instead of the full three points in the league table, that was big,” Jonker said. “We’re still in control here.”
Petoskey’s first score came on a nice buildup that ended with Annika Gandhi putting it into the back of the West net after beating her defender.
The second goal then came off the leg of Abby Wonnacott in front of the net, as a throw in by Gandhi led to a scum, which Wonnacott cleaned up.
“That was a big goal from Abby on the back post and a great long throw from Annika,” Jonker said. “The first goal was absolutely beautiful and that’s what this group is capable of doing.
“There were two others that were right on the goal line. We put them under a lot of pressure after we conceded two early.”
Jonker was pleased with a lot of the play against the Titans, including having Sadie Corey come up big in net again on a couple of point-blank tries for West, thwarting away both chances.
He also liked how others stepped up around the absence of Lauren Cole once again, who has now missed the previous three games, particularly impressed with Haidyn Wegmann.
“Without Lauren being in there, she was everywhere,” he said. “If we can all kind of channel that in the final third, I think you would see us score more goals.”
With two games left, Petoskey’s league quest can be clinched with a win at home Thursday against Alpena, which would give them at least a share of the title. They would also need just a draw against TC Central the following Tuesday to make it an outright title.
To get there, Jonker hopes there’s some aggressiveness from his team – like he talked about with Wegmann – to make the title happen.
‘There were a couple balls bouncing around the penalty box today and they were the first ones on them,” Jonker said. “I think if we were able to get to them first, we would have been able to stick them in the back of the net. We need a little more determination inside the penalty box. But, there were a lot of good positive things for us to take away.”
Contact or send game stats/info to Sports Editor Drew Kochanny at dkochanny@petoskeynews.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DrewKochanny, and Instagram, @drewkochanny
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