Comets Finds Another Gear, Break 2-2 Tie to Improve to 6-2
Hillcrest entered Saturday afternoon with two wins this week already, but the Comets’ third match brought a different kind of test. Walker-Hackensack-Akeley would not go away quietly. Twice the Wolves erased a Hillcrest lead, twice they changed the feel of the match, and twice the Comets had to prove their momentum was more than a string of good bounces. By the final whistle, Hillcrest convinced the crowd that they weren’t the beneficiaries of fortunate events, and earned their 4-2 victory to move to 6-2 and gave them three wins in a demanding week.
From the opening minutes, Hillcrest tried to control the shape of the match. Captains Alexa Ewan, Paisley Garvin, and Mckinlee Ballweg helped settle the group, while defenders Maggie Mark, Avery Uselmen, Sophie Walkup, and Paisley Garvin worked to disrupt the Wolves through the middle. Their pressure forced turnovers and allowed Hillcrest to push the ball wide, where Cecelia Wachlarowicz, Kaia Fiskness, and Danna Rodriguez could stretch the field. Ewan, operating from midfield, began finding gaps between the Wolves’ lines and helping the Comets turn defensive pressure into attacking chances.
The first breakthrough came just past the midpoint of the first half. Ewan read a Walker-Hackensack-Akeley pass, stepped into the lane, won the ball cleanly, and immediately drove toward goal. Rather than waiting for the attack to develop around her, she took the chance herself and buried a low shot past the Wolves’ keeper to give Hillcrest a 1-0 lead. It was Ewan’s seventh goal of the season.
The Wolves responded, however, and tied the match by slipping a shot past Ballweg. That goal changed the rhythm of the half, but Ballweg helped keep the moment shift from throwing the Comets off course. She came up with several important saves and helped organize the players in front of her, allowing Hillcrest time to regain its footing. Late in the half, Ewan found outside winger Isla Frobish in space, and Frobish sent a well-placed cross into box. Fiskness met it and finished from close range, restoring Hillcrest’s lead. The goal was Fiskness’ fifth of the season, and Frobish’s third assist.
Hillcrest carried that advantage into halftime, but the Wolves forced the Comets to respond. Early in the second half, Walker-Hackensack-Akeley increased its pressure ad midfield and eventually pushed through the Comet defenses to find the equalizer, placing a shot just beyond Ballweg’s reach to make it 2-2. Again, the Comets rallied, resolving as a team to not let the shift of the moment decide the game. Hillcrest’s composure became the difference.
Ewan gathered the group and helped reorganize the Comets instead of allowing the match to become frantic. Midfielders Lauren Markovetz and Grace Carpenter joined her in pushing the tempo, using their speed to challenge the Wolves’ back line and create space for the attack. Hillcrest began to play with more purpose again, and eventually Ewan found Dakota Campbell with a pass through the defense. Campbell’s first shot was blocked, but she stayed with the play, recovered the rebound, and finished the second opportunity to put the Comets back in front 3-2.
The goal was important because of how it came. Hillcrest had been pushed back, had lost control of the score, and had seen the first chance disappear. Campbell kept going. That persistence is the larger story of the match. The Comets were not playing perfectly, but they kept finding ways to stay connected to the next play.
With five minutes remaining, Hillcrest finally put the game away. Mark stood over a free kick deep in the Comets’ half and drove the ball forward. The Wolves were unable to stop it cleanly, and Campbell reacted. She collected the loose ball, broke in alone against the goalkeeper, and finished to make it 4-2. Her second goal of the afternoon gave her five for the season and ended any realistic chance of another Walker-Hackensack-Akeley comeback.
Hillcrest did not control every minute of the game, giving up two equalizers, facing stretches of pressure they didn’t manage, and forced to regroup and reorganize numerous times in the game. Yet the group never seemed to lose direction. Ballweg steadied the back line. Garvin and the defenders continued to disrupt. Ewan provided leadership and creativity in midfield. Frobish supplied service from the outside. Fiskness finished an important chance, and Campbell delivered when the match tightened late.
Hillcrest, now 6-2, returns home Tuesday, September 22, to face the Albany Huskies.