By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
AMITY, Ore.– The Lost River/Bonzana defense forced the Amity offense to adjust their offensive scheme early on in Tuesday’s 3A/2A/1A State Playoff Second Round game at Amity High School.
The Warriors went on to take the game 4-0, but each goal that Amity got, the three by Adie Nisly and the one by Lyliana Rideout, were definitely those hard-fought and earned goals.
“It’s definitely harder to adjust because we’re used to playing through the defense with our forwards, so we were trying to adjust, trying to possess more and taking some outside shots,” said Nisly.
Nisly connected on her first two goals within the first 13 minutes of the contest. Her first goal came in the sixth minute, the other coming in the 13th before the Raiders adjusted their defense enough to start creating headaches for the Warriors. Lost River/Bonzana’s defense caused Amity to be called offsides six times over the final 67 minutes. Five came in the final 15 minutes of the first half that forced Amity to play more possessive.
It took a bit, but the Warriors adjusted. It was a good taste of having to adjust their offense on the fly knowing team’s this late in the season will do whatever they can to slow down Amity’s high-octane offense. Rideout’s goal came in the 39th minute and Nisly’s final goal of the game came in the 77th minute as Amity returns to the 3A/2A/1A State Quarterfinals for the first time in two years.
“It’s super important, we’ve been working on it for the whole season and I think we’ll keep improving,” starts Nisly. “We can work on pushing up our style of play not just based on the defense. Varying what we’re doing with our offense, switching it up and keeping the defense guessing.”
Photo’s By Jeremy McDonald
