The Lakeland women's soccer team played host to Region XII's 1st place Jackson Jets today and came away with a hard-fought 3-0 defeat. The Lakers played a very strong defensive game as they constantly made it difficult for the Jets to get any space in the final 1/3 of the field. Lakeland was also very good at getting into the passing lanes and taking away most of the high-quality shots from Jackson. The Jets scored their first goal 15 minutes into the game as the Lakers committed a turnover and allowed the Jets forward to walk in on the Laker goal. After that, Lakeland tightened the defense and didn't allow another quality opportunity as they went into the break trailing 1-0.

It the second half, it was more of the same style of play as Jackson possessed the ball a good portion of the game. The Jets were unable to come away with many high quality chances as the Lakers frustrated the Jets offense. Frequently, Jackson would look to cross, but the Lakers defense (Ryley Woodworth, Brooke Callahan, Aryanna Milton-Pace, and Josalyn Abrams) and keeper (Lillyan Agostine) were up to the challenge. Additonally, Lily Schiemann played a very strong midfield to help control the play and looked to set up the offense as Georgia Edwards and Stephanie Miller looked to attack. The Lakers were still trailing 1-0 when they had their best scoring opportunity of the afternoon. The opportunity was off of a free kick that was sent into the box. As the teams scrambled for the ball, the Lakers were able to get a shot off just as they were whistled for being offsides. The score stood at 1-0 until there was 3 minutes left in the game. Lakeland was called for bringing a player down in the box setting up a successful penalty kick for the Jets. A minute later, Jackson would score a fortuitous goal as a ball would deflect off a Jets player that was falling down about 6 yards out. The ball would then glance off the post before finding it's way into the net giving the Jets the final goal of the afternoon.

Players of the Game: Lillyan Agostine, Lily Schiemann, Stephanie Miller, and Georgia Edwards

Mallon's Mentions: "We were very proud of the team's collective effort today. It was one of our best matches overall. They all did a great job following the game plan focusing on zonal defense which helped us stay right with one of the top teams in Region XII. We have really improved from the beginning of the year and our team has just shown terrific fighting spirit the past few games."

Next Up: The Lakers will have a quick turn around as they travel to St. Clair County CC on Friday (10/18) to face the Skippers in Region XII action. The game is scheduled to kickoff at 4:00 pm.