By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
SAVANNAH - Senior Emily Welter tied the game with a goal late in the first half, and sophomore Emily Weddle broke that tie with another goal late in the second half, and Bishop LeBlond (4-1) came away with a 2-1 win at Savannah Monday.
Savannah (2-2) struck first within the first 10 minutes. Senior Corinne Stewart split through a couple of defenders and put through an unassisted goal to give the Savages a 1-0 lead with 31:09 left in the first half.
LeBlond had several looks at the goal through the first half, but Savannah's midfield and sophomore keeper Lily Scheidegger kept the Eagles off the board for awhile.
Late in the first half, junior Tatum Studer passed a ball through the middle of the box, and senior Emily Welter put it top shelf to knot the game at 1-1 with 6:45 left in the first half. The score remained the same heading into halftime.
"(Tatum) just hit the ball through pretty well," said Welter, "and I just knew, I don't know, I had to get that one in, because it was a pretty good ball."
LeBlond controlled the pace offensively for much of the second half, coming up with seven shots-on-goal over the final 40 minutes. Yet again, Savannah did all they could to make life difficult for the Eagles.
Scheidegger finished with nine total saves, but LeBlond kept coming in the closing minutes. Weddle dribbed the ball down field and into the box, drawing Scheidegger out of the goal to try and cover.
Through a traffic jam of players, Scheidegger fell down, opening the door for Weddle, who slid down herself and put a rolling ground ball into the net to put LeBlond up 2-1 with 5:45 remaining.
"Honestly, I didn't really think it was going in," Weddle admitted. "But, it slipped past (Scheidegger) and obviously went in. So, I don't know. It was kind of crazy."
Savannah, which had only two shots-on-goal in the second half, couldn't come up with an effective counter in the closing minutes and the Eagles held on to win after getting blanked 8-0 at Smithville six days prior.
Still, a pretty good start for a team looking to repeat as district champions after losing nine seniors from the 2021 squad.
"I feel pretty confident in us," said Weddle, a team captain this year. "We lost a lot of seniors last year, but we still have a lot of potential and we just need to keep playing like we know how to play."
LeBlond heads to Maryville on Thursday, while Savannah is home to Chillicothe Tuesday. The Hornets won 3-1 at Benton on Monday.
You can follow Tommy on Twitter @TommyKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.