LA CENTER — The La Center girls soccer team will need to rebound, but the Wildcats showed Thursday night that they know how to rally.
Down two goals early in the second half, the Wildcats rallied to tie the match before Elma slipped in a late goal for a 3-2 win in the 1A district semifinal.
La Center will face rival Seton Catholic on Saturday for third place in the district and a berth to the state tournament.
“All year, we’ve kind of been a second-half team,” La Center coach Matt Cone said. “We battled. We executed some things we needed to do. But in the end, we made a couple of defensive errors. It is what it is and we move on.”
Elma jumped out early on an Aaleigh Weld goal in the 28th minute. Early in the second half, Weld made it 2-0.
But La Center was not discouraged.
“We were just focusing on communicating and connecting back together, playing the ball around,” La Center junior goalkeeper Sophia Johnson said. ‘We were trying to keep the energy up after we were down at halftime.”
La Center brought some energy and some pressure, which led to a penalty kick that Shaela Bradley converted in the 53rd minute.
Bradley continued to bring pressure from midfield, drawing Elma defenders. Then she fed Madison Newbury on the wing, who lofted the ball perfectly over the Elma goalkeeper to tie the match in the 65th minute.
“I think we definitely tried to keep the pressure on,” Bradley said. “I mean, when we get down, we don’t want to stay down.”
The Wildcats kept the pressure on, trying to find that go-ahead goal. But a quick counter from Elma in the 79th minute created an opportunity for the Eagles. Beta Valentine worked the ball around a drawn-out Johnson and converted for the winning goal.
Now the Wildcats will try to rally again, this time on Saturday with a berth to state at stake.
“We’ve been working hard all season, and we get let this loss get us down,” Newbury said. “I think we all understand the importance of that game. It’s a chance to go to state, and I think we’ll do good.”
ELMA 3, LA CENTER 2
Elma
Goals — Aaleigh Weld, Weld, Beta Valentine.
La Center
Goals (assists) — Shaela Bradley PK; Madisen Newbury (Bradley). Goalkeeper saves — Sophia Johnson 8.
Halftime — Elma 1-0.
