The Huron varsity soccer team lost on the road to Saline 1-0 on Thursday night.  It was a hard fought game for 90 minutes, however, the Rats just couldn’t pull out the win.  

It was evenly matched throughout the first half, with the Rats and Hornets splitting possession time fairly equally with only one real legitimate scoring chance.  Senior forward Rafay Chowdhury took a lengthy pass and had a nice shot right at the keeper.  The shot was saved, and on the ensuing rebound the keeper had a mid-air save from a header inside the goal box with his outstretched arms.

With that being the only legit scoring chance from either team through the first half, both teams needed offensive production in the second half.  Both Huron and Saline had chances, however only one team was able to take advantage.

It was shaping up to be a close, next goal wins kind of game, and it proved to be just that.  Saline scored the only goal of the match on a nice pass up the left sideline that beat the Huron defense on the back end.  The defense recovered, just not soon enough as Saline crossed it and it was put in the back of the net in the 64’.

The Huron offense finally got going in the last 12 minutes, with three chances to tie the game.  Two on direct kicks — one was a header tipped off the top post and over the net.  With the other chance being pin balled around and sent just wide of the goal.  

The Rats had multiple chances off corner kicks in the last three minutes, but it proved to be too little too late as they couldn’t put one home.  The Rats showed fight till the final whistle, however their demeanor changed after the Hornets went up by one.  Almost everyone on the bench had their heads down from that point on, and it looked like Huron never recovered from that blow midway through the second half. 

Huron will look to improve their record of 6-1-4 in their next home game on Thursday against Dexter at 4 p.m.

Photo credit: Sandra Fu