Girls soccer: Central whips Bulldogs, 1-1 in GMC/NSC tourney

Brookfield Central improved to 4-0 in the Greater Metro Conference, good enough for a first-place tie with Wauwatosa East, and 9-3 overall.

In the most important game of the week because it was a league tilt, the Lancers beat West Allis Central, 10-0, on May 1 in West Allis.

Natalie Benkowski scored two goals and Bella Turelli, Abby Miller and Kristin Rechert had a goal and an assist against the Bulldogs.

Sarah Baker, Anna Forster, Sierra High, Kelly Peterson and Naomi Dawood also had goals. Emma Knetter had three assists and Lydia Rohde and Abby Haynes each had an assist.

The Lancers led 7-0 at intermission against West Allis Central (0-4 in GMC, 2-9 overall).

Host Central opened the GMC/North Shore Conference Showdown on Friday by dropping a 2-0 decision to Whitefish Bay (7-3-2).

The Blue Dukes scored twice in the first half to put the game away as Leah Rothstein had a goal and an assist and Annie Beckman had an assist.

"We came out pretty flat and Bay took advantage of that in the first half, putting us in a 2-0 hole," Central coach Jason Burdge said. "Soccer is an emotional game and we struggled to pick ourselves back up. It definitely wasn't our prettiest first half of play this year.

"We did put a few things together in the second half. When you're playing a quality team like Whitefish Bay, you really have to bring your 'A' game to come back from being down two goals. We brought our C-plus game."

The Lancers then beat Nicolet, 3-1, on Saturday, taking a 2-0 lead at intermission.

Baker's assist set up a goal by Jenny Niemann at 11:54 and then Miller scored with an assist from Turelli.

Nicolet's Sara Travia cut the lead to 2-1 with a goal at 69:42, but the Lancers closed out the game with an unassisted goal by Sarah Fotsch in the final four minutes off a free kick.

"After losing three games in a row, our team morale was low," Burdge said. "I had to remind them why they have chosen to be involved in soccer for the majority of their life. Soccer is fun. And things are more fun when you're good at it. We scored early in the half and that jump-started our team.

"The game got a little tense when Nicolet scored late in the second half cutting the score to 2-1. They scored after Katrina Seal made a terrific one-on-one save, the ball then rebounded to one of their players who finished it."

But then Fotsch crushed the Knights' hopes for a comeback with her free kick score.