Girls soccer tops Lawndale for eighth win

On Wednesday, Feb. 3, the Samo girls varsity soccer team won their eighth game of the season against Lawndale High School with a score of 1-0.“As the game started, I was confident in our girls abilities,” team coach Artur Jozkowicz, who was coaching in the place of head coach Jimmy Chapman, who was out due to personal reasons, said. “I knew they were the superior team and would be able to win the game if they kept their heads together and played with their usual level of skill.”Both teams were extremely aggressive in the first half, and the ball stayed primarily in the middle of the field with no team being able to maintain possession long enough to run into the opponent's defending third and score.Towards the middle of the first half, Samo started connecting their passes until forward Chloe Kleinman (’16) was able to find the back of the net with an assist from left forward Gabbie Clouse (’16), ending the first half 1-0 in Samo's favor.The second half was an intense 45 minutes with Lawndale working hard to press into Samo's defensive third, but the Vikings remained vigilant for most of the half until the last few minutes where a Lawndale forward was able to break away with a ball across Samo's defensive back, and shot at the goal, but it was stopped by goalkeeper Morgan Affleck (’17), ending the game 1-0.Coach Jozkowicz was not 100 percent pleased with the girls’ performance but he was still satisfied with the win.“Towards the end of the game, we definitely had many chances [to score] but we were unlucky and unable to follow through,” said Jozkowicz. “But, overall, I'm happy with their performance.”