Girls soccer wins 3 in a row

The Creston Panthers are charting new territory in girls soccer with their recent wins.

The Panthers played three times, winning all three matches last week, moving their record to 3-2 through five matches. The Panthers began 0-2 but flipped the script with three-straight wins. This is thought to be the first time since at least 2010 that a girls soccer team from Creston has won three-straight matches.

A bonus match for the Panthers last week — a makeup match at Chariton from a weather postponement a week prior — gave the team their three matches.

Monday, April 13, the Panthers scored their first win — a 1-0 shutout victory over the Chargers from the South Central Conference. The two schools will face each other again later this season.

“We were looking forward to playing them (Chariton). We have played them well before and we had some confidence coming in,” Creston’s Gretchen Hoepker said. “After losing our first two matches, we wanted to be competitive. I was looking for an opening and I saw the ball coming my way and I was able to get a big kick for us.”

Hoepker scored Creston’s first goal in the 21st minute to break a scoreless tie, and goalkeeper Lea Stonebraker made 28 saves in goal. The win was the fourth-straight over Chariton for Stonebraker — it was her third shutout win over the Chargers of her career and the fourth shutout of her career in all.

Stonebraker, the top returning goalkeeper in the Hawkeye 10 this season, and a two-time all-conference pick, said that the win was a big boost for the team.

“Chariton wanted to win the game too, but we played well and got the win. It was big to get a road win. It was what we needed. Our first two games were rough, and this will help with our morale,” Stonebraker said. “Our defense played well in front of me tonight. That helps a lot. I think we can get on a little bit of a roll here.”

The Panthers turned around and won their second-straight match with a 3-1 win over Centerville the next night. It was the first time since 2019 the Panthers have had back-to-back wins. A pair of goals in the win were from Maddy Wozney and another was from Ella Turner. Creston led 2-0 at halftime and had extended its lead to 3-0 before Centerville scored its only goal in the 70th minute.

The week ended last Friday at home with a match against Winterset — a traditional thorn in the Panthers’ side. The Panthers posted a huge 2-1 win, scoring the winning goal in the 75th minute from Karissa Groves, one of the team’s Nodaway Valley girls.

Creston senior Lilly James scored the first goal of the match 14 minutes in. Winterset was credited with a goal after miscommunication on Creston’s part resulted in a goal scored on themselves, making the halftime score 1-1.

The Panthers kept their heads about them and got great defensive play from their defenders and goalkeeper to allow only three second-half shots on goal by the Huskies. That play would rub off on the Panther attackers as Creston nearly scored the go-ahead goal with 10 minutes left in the match. Later, Groves got free to put Creston up for good.

The match had a weird start as just 1:39 into the match, the match was delayed due to multiple lightning strikes.

“We tried to help out both teams and start earlier (5:30), but it didn’t matter in the end. It looked like it was going to rain, which we could have played through, but our hands are tied with lightning. It was a weird start,” Creston soccer coach Bill Ralston said.

The delay was the second in the last three matches for Creston, which had its match at Denison delayed with 9:03 remaining, only to later call the match with a 3-0 loss to the Monarchs.

“We felt good about this match, but Winterset has been tough matches for us. We have a good team and we are trying to find out the best way. We are young, and still looking for goals. It will come,” Ralston said. “Our last goal tonight was a good demonstration of our passing to string some passes together.”

Creston hosted Chariton Monday, the game finishing in a 2-2 tie. They will be back in action at home on Thursday against state ranked Kuemper Catholic in Hawkeye 10 play.