In Saturday's game against Scott, Hailey Curry scored 26 minutes into the first half on a pass from Valentina Haboush. The score remained at 1-0 until the 85th minute when Ellie Gess delivered an unassisted shot to the back of the net.
Alexis Wemhoff recorded six saves for the Hawks. Northeast had eight shots on goal to Scott's six.
"Once again, our girls controls play and created great opportunities, but we struggled to find the gaps to slide the ball past their goalie," said Chad Miller, Hawks coach. "Scott's defense did a good job taking those options away. We created numerous chances and kept the pressure on them. It wasn't our best game, but I saw some really good things attacking forward. We need to put that together with some finishing, and then we can create breathing room."
On Sunday, Miller said his team played effectively from the first whistle. "We have been looking for a full game where we played well the whole 90 minutes, and I felt we did that today."
Curry scored 25 minutes into the first half on a pass from Riley Johnson. The Hawks continued to keep pressure and take shots, but the half ended 1-0.
Twenty minutes into the second half, Katie Martindale was fouled in the penalty box, giving the Hawks a penalty kick, which Curry took and scored. Twenty minutes later, Lizzy McCalla was fouled in the penalty box, which Curry again took and scored. This was Curry's third hat-trick of the season.
"If we had a weak spot today, it would probably be our finishing," Miller said. "We made great decisions, but we just couldn't get the ball past the goalie like we wanted. But we played a full 90 minutes and played team soccer better than we have all season to this point. I'm proud of the girls."
Northeast outshot Western 19 to four and recorded ten shots on goal to Western's two. Alexis Wemhoff recorded two saves.
The Hawks (9-2) will return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Seward to face Concordia University JV at 7:30 p.m.
--###--