Northville girls soccer is a 2nd-half team but not happy about it
· Yahoo Sports
Northville girls soccer coach Jeannine Reddy is considering turning her halftime speech into her pregame speech.
The Mustangs (6-0-1, 3-0-1) beat Salem 4-2 in Kensington Lakes Activities Association-West play on April 21, handing the Rocks (6-1-1, 3-1-0) their first league loss and moving into a first-place tie with Hartland atop the division standings.
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But it wasn’t as much of a runaway victory as the score might suggest.
Sure, Salem is a solid team and was worthy of the No. 1 spot before the match. But Northville also made the game harder for itself than it needed to be, something the Mustangs have done for most of the spring.
This marked the third league match where they didn’t score before halftime.
They scored five goals in the second half during a 5-1 win against Plymouth on April 16, needed a second-half goal to force a 1-1 tie with Hartland on April 9 and, against the Rocks, scored three straight coming out of halftime to finally dictate play.
“It’s weird — it’s just bizarre,” Reddy said. “I don’t know what to do because I’m not going to yell at them before the game starts.”
In the NFL, teams take pride in being second-half teams, with halftime adjustments leading to wins.
Reddy believes Northville’s victories would come easier if it didn’t rely on second-half surges.
“It’s been the same kind of situation from game to game,” Reddy added. “For the first 40 minutes, we’re a little complacent, figuring out how to play from our back to the mid to the forwards. This is the third game at halftime where we’re like, ‘Go out there. You have five minutes to score,’ and then they’ll respond.”
That’s exactly what they did at the Park, except they didn’t even need five minutes.
Eastern Michigan commit Lauren Yaquinto made it 1-0 by sailing in a goal from the right side of the penalty box fewer than three minutes into the second half.
Moments later, with Salem struggling to clear the ball from its end, Yaquinto stole a pass and smashed a one-timer to the far side of the net to make it 2-0, proving the Mustangs are a dominant team, slow starts aside.
“I think our team culture here is a big thing,” the senior said. “Our team really gets along, and we practice how we play, and that’s a big thing for us. We’re able to win games like this because of how we motivate each other on the field at all times.”
They kept that positive attitude until the final whistle, despite Salem’s Marissa Williams scoring two late goals to make the final 180 seconds interesting.
But Northville’s Taylor Morrison iced the win with a free kick in the 79th minute, also finishing with two goals.
“We’ve done this in three games, where before the second half we’ve had to remind them on how we connect,” Reddy said. “We have to remind them that they are a super strong team and can play with a lot of energy. This group can score goals, but it’s almost like we’ve been hesitating to do those things, especially when you look at our games and see we’re scoring 3, 4, 5, 6 goals in the second half this season.”
Yaquinto said the team’s goal is to return to the state championship for the first time since Reddy’s first season leading the program in 2022.
Considering the Mustangs are ranked No. 7 in the latest Michigan Interscholastic High School Soccer Coaches Association Division 1 poll, that goal doesn’t seem far-fetched, especially if they clean up their first-half play.
However, they can’t wait too long to figure things out. A slow start could lead to another tie or loss and cost them a chance to win the West, especially with how well No. 12 Salem and Hartland (6-2-1, 3-0-1) have been playing lately.
“Salem is a great team, but sitting back and letting teams come at you for the first 40 minutes isn’t ideal,” Reddy said. “As we get further into the season, they’re just not going to be able to do that. We have to figure this out.”
Brandon Folsom covers high school sports in metro Detroit for Hometown Life. Follow him on his new X.com account at @folsomwrites.
This article originally appeared on Hometownlife.com: Northville girls soccer beat Salem, 4-2