The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

The Lady Outlaws trounced Redmond United in a final score of 15-4 on Thursday, April 11, but two days later suffered a devastating 16-15 loss in sudden-death overtime at home against Wilson.

Tuesday’s win over Redmond was a great team win for Sisters. The Outlaws have been working hard on defensive transition and ball movement through the midfield, as well as midfield to defensive transitions, and the team saw massive improvement in those areas in their win over the Panthers.

Freshman Emma Lutz was a pleasant surprise. Lutz has played defense on the team since the start of the season, but this game she was moved to attack to see how well she’d play up front.

Lutz scored two of the Outlaws goals, one of which was an unsuspecting feed and at the top of the eight, where she was unmanned and ran right to the goal for the score.

“I loved seeing Emma on attack,” said Coach Shelby Wilcox. “She’s always moving and cutting through the eight.”

Several other players scored multiple goals. Kaylee Huber recorded three, and Ellie Cook and Reese Harwell each scored two.

Maddie Symonds and Chloe Wessel were both impressive on the defensive end. Maddie and Chloe are both new to the position and were able to shut down the Panthers’ attack players by double teaming and pushing them out of the eight-meter box.

Wilcox commented on the Outlaws defense.

“We have been working really hard in practice on being meaningful with our defense and communicative with the other defenders and midfielders, and it paid off!” said Wilcox.

Saturday’s game against Wilson was a very tough loss for the Outlaws. Sisters led the entire game, and were up 15-10 with five minutes to go in the game. At that point, Wilson began to close the gap, and ended up with the win in sudden-death overtime.

Ellie Cook scored five beautiful goals for Sisters to lead in their scoring effort. One of the five was a perfect shot. Ellie received the ball behind the goal and wrapped the crease, and as the defense closed in, she was able to shoot into the high-left corner of the net for the goal. Ellie also tallied four ground balls.

Pearl Gregg scored three goals. One of her goals came when she got an incredible pass from Cook into the eight-meter where she was all alone, and shot the ball into the top-right corner for the score. Another great goal from Gregg came off a Mary Root assist. The goalie was barely in the goal, and Pearl made good on a wide-open shot.

Mary Root, Sydney Head, and Skylar Wilkins each tallied two goals in the contest. Root and Head also tallied three ground balls each, and Head led the team with eight draw controls.

“Despite the disappointing loss, we are glad this was a non-league game, and we can use the loss and turn it into an opportunity to learn. We can take the energy from this game and turn it into fire in our next game.”

Sisters was scheduled to play at Summit on Monday, April 15. The Outlaws will match up against Summit JV on Thursday, and then play at home on Sunday, April 21, against Thurston.