Spotlight Match – Salvo 6-0 Manitou
It took less than two minutes for Salvo to earn their first corner and only a minute more before they registered their first shot on goal. With barely 5 mins on the clock, the hosts had the opportunity to go ahead but a cross in from the right was just missed by attackers in the 6 yard box.
A minute later, Manitou had a chance to go ahead but a free kick fired in from 20 yards out, scuttered across the box and away for a goal kick. It would prove costly, as shortly after, Salvo’s high press turned over the ball in the Manitou penalty area and Khyah Harper calmly slotted it home. That would become a recurring theme of the first half.
With Manitou struggling to break Salvo’s press, a long ball down the middle from Cameron Rintoul, was latched onto by a sprinting Khyah Harper, who outpaced the Manitou defence and tapped it home in the 21st minute.
Two minutes later, the Manitou defence gave up the ball easily again, and Katelyn Buelke passed to Harper for a 23 min hat trick. The pattern of the game then shifted into a more tactical mode, with Salvo in complete control, slowly passing laterally and forward before unleashing shots, albeit without scoring.
With half time approaching, another ball down the middle from Maddie Ishaug saw Khyah Harper score her fourth of the game.
With the game out of hand, the second half started scrappily but Manitou were able to apply some pressure down their right wing, before the ball went harmlessly out. A combination of scrambling defence and mis-timed connections meant that the game would remain in a sort of stalemate until Aaryn Gabriel dribbled into the box and smashed home from close in, from Sophia Barjesteh, for Salvo’s fifth goal. Manitou came close in the waning minutes but the final word came from Gabriel, firing a bullet header past a helpless Jordan Metz in the Manitou goal in the 89th minute.
For the other results and upcoming schedule from the WPSL, check out Week 7’s Wrap Up – out on Sunday.