By Tom Minutolo

The Tecumseh Lady Arrow Soccer Team finished in a flurry and came away with a 4-4 Tie in their third scrimmage game of the pre-season on Tuesday against the Newton High School Lady Indians. The game was moved to a small park a couple of miles from the high school due to some construction activity and the Arrows battled against the smaller width o f the field all evening as they struggled with possession.

Nonetheless the Arrows scored early at 31:00 as Jessica Boggs penetrated from the left side and finished a shot from 13 yards out in the near corner for an early 1-0 lead. Newton responded to tie the game 1-1 at 29:12 on a shot from their own from the right side. Tecumseh scored its second goal at 25:00 on a corner kick taken by Alysha Benson with a finish by Guadaloupe Mendoza showing great form in heading it inside the near post for a 2-1 edge. Newton quickly recovered and scored its second goal less that a minute later on a nice shot from the left side by Kirsten Bundee for a 2-2 halftime margin.

Coach Jim Paxton was not pleased with his team’s performance and stressed the need to use the whole width of the field and attempt more accurate ground passing and player movement. For the half the Arrows won only 11 of 24 50/50 balls. They had 66 intercepts but gave the ball up on 52 unnecessary loss of possession plays.

The second half saw the Arrows continue to struggle. The Indians scored at 32:10 and again at 22:20 to take what looked to be an insurmountable lead. However, credit the Arrows with a lot of heart and grit on a night when they did not have their “A” game in continuing to battle. Their efforts began to pay dividends at 12:13 as Jessica Boggs broke thru on the left off a nice pass from Mendoza to make the game interesting at 4-3. As time was running down and under the 5 minute mark Tecumseh played with a great sense of urgency. Taylor Thompson made a long upfield pass to Alysha Benson who finished on a hard shot from the right side 18 yards out for the final 4-4 tie.

Kelley Gruber had 6 saves for the Arrows who finish up the preseason with a game at Troy Christian on Thursday.